Thomas Nilsen

Tighter export restrictions on electronics, but not all Russian fishing vessels are checked

Russian fishing vessels making port calls to Northern Norway could be loopholes to bypass sanctions and export controls.
January 05, 2023

Arkhangelsk student Olesya (19) charged for reposting war criticism

A court ruling places Olesya Krivtsova under house arrest until her trial comes up.
January 05, 2023

All time high for Norwegian seafood exports

The value of seafood export increased by 25 percent from 2021 to 2022. Mainly caused by a sharp rise in prices, as overall volume remained stable.
January 04, 2023

EVs counted for 80% of car sales in Norway, but northernmost region lags behind

Four out of five new passenger cars sold in Norway in 2022 were all-electric, placing the country well on schedule towards the goal of ending sales of fossil fuel vehicles by 2025.
January 03, 2023

Nuclear icebreakers’ operation hits Post-Soviet peak

Seven Russian nuclear-powered icebreakers are in the first days of January crushing ice along the western sector of the Northern Sea Route and the outlets of the rivers Ob and Yenisei.
January 03, 2023

Sevmash delivers sixth Borei-class sub, launches the seventh

Russia significantly increased its modern naval nuclear forces on Thursday as one new Borei-A class submarine was handed over to the navy at the shipyard in Severodvinsk.
December 29, 2022

Medvedev says Russians who left should be banned from returning

Traitors who hate their country so much that they call for its defeat and destruction must be regarded as 'hostis publicus' - public enemies, the Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council writes in his Telegram channel.
December 29, 2022

"No analogues in the world," Putin bragged. Now, the missiles are deployed on warship sailing from Severomorsk

The navy frigate "Admiral Gorshkov" sailed north from the Baltic Sea in December for final readiness tests north of the Kola Peninsula. In January, the Tsirkon-armed warship embarks on unknown mission.
December 28, 2022

This year's biggest Barents Sea gas discovery

"It comes as a Christmas gift," says Alessandro Barberis, Vice President Exploration with Vår Energy after the largest discovery on the Norwegian shelf this year.
December 23, 2022

Sanctions bring Norilsk’s electric buses plan to a halt

Two fast-chargers are already installed, but Russia’s GAZ Group can’t get hold of the foreign-made batteries for the first buses to be tested in the far north city of Norilsk.
December 22, 2022

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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