Thomas Nilsen

Friendship towns Vadsø and Murmansk send fire trucks to the opposite sides of the war in Ukraine

On paper, they are still friendship towns on each side of the Norwegian-Russian border. This week, both Vadsø and Murmansk sent one fire truck each to Ukraine. The one from Murmansk went to illegally occupied Donetsk.
February 08, 2023

Arctic oil-driller Gazprom Neft creates its own private military company

Unclear what threats Russia’s newest paramilitary company will counter in the Arctic.
February 08, 2023

Kola Peninsula sees drop in mining

Extraction of metal ores fell by more than 10 percent in Russia’s Murmansk region, according to the official annual report on industrial production.
February 07, 2023

Last Typhoon removed from service

After 41 years in Arctic waters, the giant Cold War weapon TK-208 “Dmitri Donskoy” is withdrawn from service.
February 06, 2023

US soldiers to train Arctic warfare in Lapland from Monday

Together with the Jaeger Brigade in Sodankylä, the American soldiers will exercise tactical interoperability in the coldest wilderness of northern Europe.
February 05, 2023

Warmest January in Norway’s northeast

East Finnmark region was 4 to 5 degrees warmer than normal in January.
February 03, 2023

Appeal Court okays Yakunin acquittal

"Common sense has prevailed," said Andrey Yakunin (47) after the Hålogaland Court of Appeal upheld the acquittal on Thursday. The case can be brought in for the Supreme Court.
February 02, 2023

Lonely Lavrov invites Arctic colleagues to Siberia, but no one will come

The seven other foreign ministers from the circumpolar north will keep distance when Sergey Lavrov ends his two-year chairmanship of the Arctic Council in Salekhard on May 11.
January 31, 2023

Value of Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Fund's Russia investments slashed to one-tenth

Even though divesting out of the Russian stock market following Putin’s brutal military attack on Ukraine, the Norwegian oil fund still holds hundreds of millions worth of shares in petroleum companies like Gazprom, Novatek, Bashneft and Lukoil.
January 31, 2023

Third new Norwegian Coast Guard vessel arrives

Norway’s waters to patrol have expanded dramatically in recent years as previous ice-covered areas around Svalbard now are easier to navigate for fisheries, cruise tourism, cargo vessels and foreign warships.
January 28, 2023

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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