Thomas Nilsen

Contract for world’s largest icebreaker signed in Murmansk-Vladivostok video meeting

Russia gives go-ahead for the first Lider-class icebreaker amid big uncertainties in global trade, shipping and potential for huge income from Arctic oil and gas.
April 23, 2020

Risking death for Arctic gas? Novatek construction site emerge as hotbed for coronavirus

Dramatic increase with hundreds of new cases confirmed over the last week in the district of Novatek’s construction site north of Murmansk where the numbers of workers infected by the coronavirus surpass 1,000 on Friday.
April 23, 2020

Radioactive Cesium measured up north could origin from Chernobyl forest fires

Bredo Møller with Norway's nuclear safety agency shows the air filter station where tiny small levels of Cesium-137 were measured this week.
April 21, 2020

FSB stopped first boat refugees en route to Norway in the north

After the Arctic Route migrant wave in 2015, there have been several attempts by third-country residents to illegally cross the land border between Russia and Norway, but this is likely the first time someone tried to enter Schengen-Europa via the Barents Sea.
April 21, 2020

Better to leave the Arktika icebreaker in St. Petersburg until broken engine is replaced, says Murmansk expert

The only way to fix the faulty engine is to lift it out of the hull and replace it with a new one, a work that will cause another year of delay for Russia’s new prestigious nuclear-powered icebreaker.
April 19, 2020

Anti-satellite weapon tested from Plesetsk

The top-secret missile was most likely what locals in two remote villages in the Russian north captured on camera on Wednesday.
April 16, 2020

Belokamenka has the fastest-growing coronavirus outbreak in northern Russia

Work continues at Novatek's construction site north of Murmansk where thousands of fly-in, fly-out employees share cramped space in barracks. More than 200 have tested positive to the coronavirus so far.
April 15, 2020

Mobile hospital arrives in Murmansk as emergency is declared at Novatek construction site

Thousands of workers are isolated at Belokamenka construction site north of Murmansk where municipal authorities declared emergency Saturday evening in an attempt to hinder further outbreak of coronavirus.
April 12, 2020

Nearly 3 of 4 coronavirus patients in Murmansk are under 45 years old

Murmansk’s coronavirus numbers rise sharply like in the rest of Russia.
April 11, 2020

Northern Fleet warplanes perform stratospheric drill over Arctic

The upgraded version of MiG-31 interceptor-fighters based on the Kola Peninsula performed flights up to 17,000 meters.
April 11, 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