Thomas Nilsen

Europe's northernmost cross-border railway still closed two months after ore train derailed

Halt in rail transport between Kiruna and Narvik causes big challenges for Sweden’s largest mining company. It also highlights the sensitivity of poor infrastructure for NATO’s military reinforcement of northernmost Scandinavia.
February 14, 2024

British aircraft carrier sets sail for exercise inside Arctic Circle

Armed with F-35, Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, the carrier will take a lead role in Norway’s large-scale allied winter exercise Nordic Response.
February 13, 2024

Russian bombers outside Finnmark ahead of exercise Nordic Response

Two Tu-95 strategic bombers escorted by Su-35 fighter jets flew west in the Barents Sea over international air space Monday.
February 12, 2024

Stricter rules apply to tourists heading to Svalbard

Increased Arctic tourism has resulted in bigger pressure on vulnerable wildlife and nature.
February 09, 2024

Støre: No plans to lift restrictions on NATO activities near border with Russia

A British Air Force plane was Tuesday flying back-and-forth over the Varanger Fjord a few nautical miles from Norway’s border with Russia. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, however, says to the Barents Observer that there are no plans to change self-imposed restrictions for NATO flights over the East-Finnmark region.
February 08, 2024

Here are the cruise missiles terror-bombing Ukraine unloaded from military cargo train to Olenya Air Base

The Sentinel-2 satellite image obtained by the Barents Observer from February 6 shows nine Tu-95 bombers lined up at the apron a few hours before take-off for yet another Russian massive cruise missile attack on Ukraine. A closer look at satellite images from last summer shows details of the heavily guarded, fenced-off, busy railway facility where the missiles and warheads are unloaded from trains and made ready for the bombers.
February 07, 2024

Jaeger battalion GSV gets weapons to destroy low-flying aircraft and drones

Specialized invasion defense soldiers on the border with Russia’s heavily militarised Kola Peninsula are the first in Norway to be armed with the Piorun man-portable air defense system.
February 06, 2024

Sevmash launches fifth Borei-A ballistic missile submarine

"The Knyaz Pozharsky embodies the most advanced technological solutions, experience and traditions of domestic submarine shipbuilding," Navy Commander Admiral Nikolai Evmenov said at the launching ceremony in Severodvinsk on Saturday.
February 04, 2024

Norway expands defense agreement with American troops

Andøya, Bardufoss and Setermoen in northern Norway are among the eight new dedicated areas where the United States military could be allowed to build infrastructure to strengthen defense cooperation with the Nordics.
February 02, 2024

Storskog sees no increase in crossings since Finland’s eastern border closure

Storskog has become the closest checkpoint for travelers between northern Finland and Russia, but January saw a further drop in crossings by 22 percent compared with December.
February 02, 2024

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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