Thomas Nilsen

Norway boosts military spendings in the north

The security policy situation has changed, the Government says and adds another 3,5 billion kroner (€362 million) to the budget for strengthening defense and civil preparedness.
April 03, 2022

Flexing a nuclear-powered submarine in Lyngen, UK sharpens Arctic military presence

Against the backdrop of snow-covered mountains of the Lyngen Alps in northern Norway, a team of commandos soldiers surfacing from a submarine trained landing and raid on the icy shores, as Defense Secretary Ben Wallace presented the UK’s new military Arctic strategy on Tuesday.
March 30, 2022

Lavrov announces stricter entry rules as a new Iron Curtain descends

The Russian foreign minister says a draft presidential decree is being made aimed at restricting entry rules for people from “unfriendly states”.
March 28, 2022

Hundreds of Arctic troops killed, says Ukrainian adviser

The Russian Army on Friday updated its losses to 1,351 soldiers killed in action in the Ukraine war. An adviser with the President’s office in Kyiv says its armed forces destroyed an Arctic tactical group of which only three out of 648 soldiers survived.
March 26, 2022

End comes to last Russia-Europe rail link

The Allegro train service between Helsinki and St. Petersburg will have its last departure on Sunday, March 27.
March 25, 2022

Battlecruiser launched surface-to-air missiles in Norwegian Sea

The Russian Northern Fleet exercised with both artillery and surface-to-air missiles at a pre-announced area halfway between Northern Norway and Iceland in the first week of NATO’s Cold Response.
March 22, 2022

Top NATO commanders give Norway high marks for balancing ties on Arctic border to Russia

NATO’s two top operational-level commanders, General Jörg Vollmer and Vice-Admiral Daniel Dwyer, express high satisfaction with how Norway handles the challenges of sharing border to one of the most militarized regions of Russia.
March 21, 2022

In Murmansk support rally, people came, checked in, and left

"History is being made in front of our very eyes," the Putin appointed governor Andrey Chibis said to the crowd gathered downtown Murmansk on the eight-year anniversary of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.
March 19, 2022

U.S. tiltrotor aircraft crashes in northern Norway during exercise

The aircraft had a crew of four when it went missing in bad weather north of Saltfjellet just inside the Arctic Circle.
March 19, 2022

Sevmash readies two more subs as Putin elevates role of nuclear weapons

In wake of big conventional losses in Ukraine, the role of nuclear weapons in Moscow’s defence and deterrence strategy may get elevated even further, says an expert on Russian military posture.
March 16, 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