Thomas Nilsen

Ukrainian drone hit Tu-22M3 bomber at Olenya airfield, intel report claims

Russia's war against Ukraine has for the first time hit back on the Arctic. A Tu-22M3 bomber at the Olenya airfield on the Kola Peninsula was Saturday morning hit by a drone, the Intelligence Service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reports.
July 27, 2024

Finland mulls an end to Barents cooperation

"The Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs is gradually disengaging from Barents cooperation," says Elina Valtonen and makes clear that challenges faced by the regions of Finland, Sweden and Norway can be pursued through other programs and cross-border structures.
July 25, 2024

Turkish science team explores Russia’s Svalbard plans

Infrastructure, logistics and life were on the agenda when a Turkish research delegation came to Pyramiden, the ghost town Russia wants to turn into an international Arctic science hub. The move comes only three months after Ankara ratified the Svalbard Treaty.
July 23, 2024

Kazan back in Zaozersk

The nuclear-powered submarine returns home after a two months voyage across the North-Atlantic that included docking in Cuba.
July 22, 2024

B-52 on first time mission over northern Finland

A pair of B-52 strategic bombers that came in over Finland from Norwegian air space made a first-ever flight in the skies above Lapland near the Lake Inari Sunday morning.
July 21, 2024

Svalbard had warmest June on record

Longyearbyen airport had an average temperature of 6.1°C, which is 2.5°C above normal. This is the warmest June recorded at the station.
July 19, 2024

Main naval parade in Kronstadt canceled

For the first time since 2017 no larger warships will participate in Russia’s Main naval parade in the waters outside St. Petersburg. “Security reasons,” says Rear Admiral.
July 18, 2024

Russia cancels Olesia's internal passport

Barents Observer journalist Olesia Krivtsova, who fled prosecution in Arkhangelsk last year, is one of several exile-Russians recently to discover that the repressive authorities have cancelled their main ID document.
July 17, 2024

Nuclear-powered submarine steams north in surface position

The Northern Fleet has for unknown reasons called home three warships that were supposed to show strength at Russia's Main Naval Parade in St. Petersburg later this month.
July 15, 2024

Oslo upholds payment to honorary consulate in a region where not one single Norwegian is living

The office still helps facilitating visas to Vardø, the Norwegian town where Russia's orthodox church from Arkhangelsk wanted to build a chapel with panorama view to the space radar complex important for NATO.
July 15, 2024

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Thomas Nilsen is editor of the Barents Observer. 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 Russia and the Arctic. 

Thomas has been traveling extensively across northern Scandinavia and Arctic Russia since the late 80’s working for different media and NGOs. He has also been a guide at sea and in remote locations in the Russian north for various groups and regularly lectures on security, environment and Russia’s repressive influence operations.

In 2017, FSB declared Thomas Nilsen persona non grata (PNG) and since 2019 the censorship agency Roscomnadzor has attempted to block the Barents Observer from the Russian internet.

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

Mobile: +47-90573143

thomas@thebarentsobserver.com
@nilsen.thomas