Thomas Nilsen

“It’s about time” U.S. ambassador to Norway says of Sweden, Finland’s NATO bids

The U.S. ambassador to Norway, Marc Nathanson, says the whole northern flank of NATO has to be conscious of the border with Russia up north as Putin has huge military forces in the area.
March 11, 2023

F-35s scrambled as pair of anti-sub aircraft appeared north of Finnmark

Standard QRA mission showing that we control and monitor allied areas of interest, the Norwegian Armed Forces says after the Russian planes flew over the western parts of the Barents Sea.
March 10, 2023

Key NATO commanders teamed up with newcomer Sweden at northern border with Russia

PASVIK: Amid rising tensions with Putin’s Russia, NATO strengthens its northern security cooperation. Never before have there been more high-ranking commanders on Norway’s border to the strategically important Kola Peninsula.
March 09, 2023

UK commandos set up training Camp Viking in Northern Norway

The new Arctic operation base will support Britain’s commandos for the next ten years. By the way, the Norwegians don’t call it a “base” because the country’s self-imposed restraints don’t allow for allied countries to stay permanent.
March 09, 2023

Foreign minister Huitfeldt on snowmobile patrol along Russian border

Norway continues to keep border and ports open for Russia in the north. “We are cooperating with individual Russians,” foreign minister Anniken Huitfeldt says, but makes clear that it is impossible to meet government officials or politicians as long as the war on Ukraine goes on.
March 07, 2023

Old icebreakers eye upgrades for Murmansk-Vladivostok tourism

As international cruise liners pull out of the Russian Arctic amid Ukraine war, a domestic initiative launches month-long voyages along the Northern Sea Route.
March 07, 2023

Three exercises, one scenario: Russia

Building capabilities, cooperation and cross-border enforcement are in focus as military forces from several NATO countries are involved in three larger exercises inside the Arctic Circle this week.
March 05, 2023

On thin ice, more polar bears move from Svalbard to Franz Josef Land

February 27 marks International Polar Bear Day, but there is no reason to celebrate at Svalbard where the entire west- and north coasts of Spitsbergen and Nordaustlandet are open waters. Polar bears depend on sea ice for hunting seals.
February 27, 2023

Kirkenes' international reputation in jeopardy over Severomorsk friendship

"Friends of Russia are enemies of the rest of us, as simple as that," says the well-known Finnish entrepreneur and investor Peter Vesterbacka.
February 25, 2023

On Norway’s Arctic border with Russia, saving refugee lives in extreme cold bigger worry than military invasion

Frontier guard Lars Erik Gausen is well aware that Russian soldiers are training warfare a few kilometers east of the Pasvik River ahead of being sent to Putin’s bloody onslaught on Ukraine. His biggest everyday worry, however, is not a military attack on Norway, but fleeing border crossers in struggle to survive the rugged Arctic wilderness.
February 24, 2023

Pages

Thomas Nilsen is editor of the Independent Barents Observer with its news desk located in Kirkenes, northern Norway. He has a long experience in media cooperation across the borders in the high north of Europe, both as radio- and newspaper reporter all the way back to the days before the breakup of the Soviet Union. 

Nilsen has been editor of Barents Observer since 2009.

He was Deputy Head of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat from 2004-2009. Until 2003, he worked 12 years for the Bellona Foundation’s Russian study group, focusing on nuclear safety issues and general environmental challenges in northern areas and the Arctic. 

Thomas has been traveling extensively across northern Scandinavia and Arctic Russia since the late 80’s working for different media and organizations. He is also a guide at sea and in remote locations in the Russian north for various groups and regularly lectures on security issues, environmental and socio-economic development.

Thomas Nilsen studied at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Mobile: +47-90573143

thomas@thebarentsobserver.com
@nilsen.thomas