Thomas Nilsen

Russia kicks out Sweden’s development agency

End comes to decades of cooperation and economical support to environment, democracy and human rights.
June 30, 2022

Midnight Sun heat wave

Temperatures surpassed 30 degrees Celsius across northern Scandinavia on Wednesday and many metrological stations hit new record high temperatures for June.
June 29, 2022

Pro-Russian hacker group says it attacked Norway

“Good morning Norway! - All squads at battle,” was the short message the Killnet cyber attack cluster posted via its Telegram channel Wednesday morning. The announcement was framed by a manipulated photo of Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt, by the hackers named “Mrs. Error”.
June 29, 2022

Sails Europe-Asia Arctic route loaded at one-tenth of capacity

Rosatom engages the world’s only civilian nuclear-powered cargo vessels for yet another year on voyages between St. Petersburg and Petropavlovsk, but the transportation needs seem to be well below expectations.
June 28, 2022

Satellite images reveal construction of Russian radar to track stealthy F-35

The 360-degree sector of the new Rezonans-NE radar occupies an area of 100 x 100 meters and is said to have capabilities to provide early warning and target tracking against stealth aircraft like the F-35 that both Norway and Finland will operate in the airspace west of the Kola Peninsula.
June 27, 2022

Rosatom wants to get back its investment in Finnish not-to-be-built NPP

“All the money that was spent in Finland will be billed, Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev said in an interview with RBC TV.
June 24, 2022

First illegal border crossing from Russia to Norway since 2015

A man was on Thursday detained in the terrain by Norwegian police for illegal border crossing from Russia's Kola Peninsula.
June 23, 2022

Russia wants Barentsburg food supplies shipped via mainland Norway

The Russian Embassy in Oslo warns of a humanitarian emergency at the country’s mining society on Svalbard this coming winter if Norway doesn’t open its land border at Storskog for two containers with seven tons of food supplies from Murmansk.
June 19, 2022

Norwegian military vehicles take new transit corridor via Finnish Lapland

The transport route via Finnish Lapland took place only hours after the Norwegian Parliament approved a welcome of Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
June 17, 2022

Abandoned military airport on Kola will be reconstructed

As part of a major upgrade of Northern Fleet airstrips in the European Arctic, the Severomorsk-2 that was shut down in 1998 will now be reconstructed and reopened.
June 13, 2022

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