The Foreign Ministry says the move is a tit-for-tat response after the European Union before Christmas adopted a set of restrictive measures against the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company.
The Barents Sea naval exercise will train coordinated combat actions between ships, submarines, aircraft, air defense units and garrisons of Russia’s largest fleet.
As fears grow about a military conflict in Ukraine and escalating security turmoil in Europe, three of the largest navy ships in Russia’s Northern Fleet are currently sailing outside northern Norway on their way to war games southwest of Ireland.
Cross-border shopping and leisure travel could again get a boost after nearly two years of practically closed border for normal people between Russia and Norway in the north.
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.