The Barents Observer makes a difference. A final 2022 email digests with an important message from the editor

Dear reader,

This is the final Newsletter in 2022 from the Barents Observer in a year that has been beyond bad for cross-border relations. For us as journalists, however, the desire to bring forward stories about what happens in Northwest Russia and northern Scandinavia stays stronger than ever.

Free and independent journalism is the biggest threat to any totalitarian regime, like the one we today see in Moscow. When Putin and his fellow kleptocrats decided to attack a neighboring country, in a brutal barbaric manner, they knew that couldn’t be done without censoring and silencing the media.

As journalists, we are no longer allowed to enter Russia to do unbiased reporting. However, having 20-years+ of experience traveling in the northern regions of the country, maintaining a comprehensive network of good sources, and sitting a ten-minute drive from the border to the Kola Peninsula, we see a panorama of opportunities.

In the newsroom of the Barents Observer, we have an every-morning saying: “Putin is not a danger to us, we are the danger to him.”

After the war broke out in February, the Barents Observer strengthened its staff with two Russian journalists working in exile. We also got one Ukrainian journalist, coming to Kirkenes as a refugee. This couldn’t be done without financial support from, among others, the Fritt Ord Foundation and the Tinius Trust. We hope we will also be able to count on your support so we can continue to produce fact-based journalism about the dramatic changes we see in Russia and our Arctic regions.

Any amount you can give on this doorstep to the New Year will directly contribute to strengthening our reporting on war, society, economy, environment and other topics we know you are reading because of interest.

The Barents Observer knows we make a difference. So do Russian authorities as they over years have pushed repressive measures against our independence. In October this year, we got a new letter from the General Prosecutor in Moscow requesting us to be closed.

We can assure you that the letter inspired us to work even harder!

These are some digests from our reporting in 2022.

• How political propaganda is being introduced into Russian schools.

• Murmansk officials celebrated the Soviet “liberation” of the former Finnish town of Alakurtti.

• The fight against war. A story from inside Russia about thousands of people being arrested and punished for being in opposition.

• With local Norwegian support, Bishop Aleksandr of Plesetsk has the desire to build an Orthodox chapel next to Vardø radar

• Welcome onboard: How Norway’s new P-8 Poseidon aircraft will counter Russia’s submarine threat in Arctic waters.

• Finland and Sweden join NATO. War games in boreal forest spotlights changing security architecture of the North

• “I fucking went to protect people and now they say I’m nothing but a faggot.” Our interview with a volunteer soldier from a North Russian region

With this, the Barents Observer wishes you a Happy New Year and all good for 2023.

From myself and my colleagues Atle, Denis, Georgii and Anastasia, thank you for your support!

Thomas Nilsen
Editor