Thomas Nilsen

No Arctic Railway, you said? Let's make our own

With Lapland regional council this week rejecting the Arctic Railway project, local tourist provider Kilpissafarit in Finland’s northwestern arm decided to make their own variant, the world’s longest sledge-train.
May 21, 2021

Jailed Russian historian receives Sakharov Freedom Award

Yury Dmitriev receives the prize for his work to identify victims of Stalin’s terror in Karelia.
May 21, 2021

Expedition underway to check leakages from reactor and two nukes on Arctic seabed

The Russian research vessel "Professor Molchanov" will arrive on site of the sunken "Komsomolets" submarine late Friday night.
May 21, 2021

Norway in joint training with B-52 up north

A pair of Norwegian F-16 fighter jets was this week training with a U.S. strategic bomber along the county’s northern coast.
May 20, 2021

Massive heatwave across northern Russia as Moscow takes chair of Arctic Council

Up to 27 °C in the Arctic town of Naryan-Mar is expected for Thursday, a weather forecast that literarily could set the agenda for Russia's chairmanship of the Arctic Council.
May 19, 2021

Lapland Regional Council rejects Arctic railway

There will not be an Arctic railway linking northern Finland with the Norwegian Barents Sea harbor in Kirkenes.
May 17, 2021

Nornickel has changed positively, says Taimyr indigenous group

After the oil spill, we see positive changes in policy and approaches to interaction with the indigenous minorities, says Grigory Dyukarev, head of the Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North on the Taimyr Peninsula.
May 16, 2021

Admiral Moiseyev slams Norway’s ties with the United States as NATO kicks off major missile defence exercise

The Northern Fleet Commander considers Norway as the United States' bridgehead in the Arctic.
May 16, 2021

Northern Fleet gets priority in receiving new ballistic missile subs

Russia’s Defense Ministry has decided that at least one of the next Borei-A class strategic submarines will be delivered to the Northern Fleet instead of the Pacific Fleet.
May 15, 2021

Komi authorities declare emergency after oil spill

A broken pipeline has caused oil to leak out to the northern Russian Kolva river in the border area between Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Komi Republic.
May 15, 2021

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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