Thomas Nilsen

Empty streets: Norway extends COVID-19 lockdown until April 13

Kindergartens, schools and universities will remain closed until after the Easter holiday.
March 24, 2020

Norway unemployment rate quadrupled over the last two weeks

10,4% is the highest unemployment rate since Second World War.
March 24, 2020

Finnair cancels all flights to northern Lapland

Next weekend is the last chance to fly north to Ivalo, Kittilä and Kuusamo with the Finnish national carrier.
March 23, 2020

New ammunition explosion on Kola, five injured

The explosion happened Sunday afternoon at a weapons warehouse in Roslyakovo between Murmansk and Severomorsk.
March 22, 2020

Starvation death looms as huge amount of snow piles up over icy crust

“It’s a serious crisis,” says Elisabeth Aspaker, County Governor of Norway’s northernmost region. She calls on everyone not to disturb the reindeer as “they need all their energy to find food.”
March 22, 2020

Lapland ski resorts all closing

Last day of skiing: All major ski resorts in northern Finland announced on Sunday that they will close the lifts.
March 22, 2020

Russian Barents Sea fisheries at risk of stopping as Norwegian ports are practically closed for crew change

90% of Russia’s fisheries in European Arctic waters are done by 80 vessels bought or repaired abroad. For customs reasons, they can’t make port calls to Murmansk.
March 21, 2020

North Pole Barneo camp cancelled

With Norway partially shutting down its borders for foreigners, Svalbard airport Longyearbyen can’t be used to shuttle people and supply to Russia’s planned Barneo ice-camp in the high Arctic. 2020-season, therefore, ends before it started.
March 19, 2020

Hurtigruten puts cruise operations on hold, but two ships will sail supplies

"I firmly believe it is the only responsible decision in the extraordinary crisis the world is currently facing," says Hurtigruten CEO Daniel Skjeldam
March 19, 2020

Norwegian krone plunges to its lowest in modern times

Coronavirus pandemic and oil price collapse have a dramatic impact on the risk-sensitive Norwegian currency.
March 19, 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