Thomas Nilsen

Northern Fleet makes ready for long-range test of Tsirkon hypersonic missile

From the Russian sector of the Barents Sea, the new missile can reach targets in the Norwegian Sea in about 10 minutes after launch if the Northern Fleet chose to activate its Bastion defence concept.
November 02, 2020

How a Barents Observer story is misused by troll media to sham a Norwegian "intrusion" into the Russian Arctic

Is really KV Svalbard's voyage far north of Siberia happening without informing Russia and as a deliberated military provocation on behalf of the United States?
October 30, 2020

Norwegian Coast Guard sails high-latitude Arctic voyage to Beaufort Sea

KV Svalbard is called in to recover three moored instruments vital for measuring temperatures throughout the Arctic Ocean. The job was supposed to be done by the the United States' Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Healy, now at repair after suffering a fire and propulsion failure in August.
October 27, 2020

Europe’s clean energy shift troubles construction of giant coal port in Murmansk

The Lavna coal terminal on the west side of the Kola Bay, a key pillar in the Murmansk Transport Hub project, may be postponed indefinitely.
October 26, 2020

For safety reasons, Norway's Arctic LNG plant could be closed for a year

Damages caused by the fire in September at Equinor's Barents Sea LNG plant are severe and an estimated restart of production may be October 2021.
October 26, 2020

Border checkpoints with Finland and Norway not on Russia's e-visa list

Nordic citizens can from February 4, 2021, apply online for visa to Russia, but such e-visa will not be approved for entry at any of the land border checkpoints with Finland or Norway.
October 25, 2020

Former Norwegian Consulate turned into Big Brother surveillance center

The city’s new video analytic management center, aimed at improving street security, will coordinate facial recognition technology for law enforcement agencies.
October 23, 2020

First nuclear submarine will be museum in St. Petersburg, not next to Lenin in Murmansk as planned

A decision is taken to place K-3 "Leninsky Komsomol" on exhibit at the coming Museum of Navy Glory in Kronstadt outside St. Petersburg.
October 23, 2020

Northern Norway has most drunk drivers

A dubious record: About three times as many drunk drivers (per capita) are stopped in Norway’s northernmost Finnmark police district as in Oslo.
October 22, 2020

Hammerfest hospital partly closed due to COVID-19 outbreak

25 cases of COVID-19 are confirmed in Hammerfest in northernmost Norway. 15 of the infected are hospital employees.
October 21, 2020

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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