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Thomas Nilsen Profile
Thomas Nilsen

@NilsenThomas

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5,357
Following
775
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970
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5,737

Editor of the Barents Observer. Arctic regions of 🇳🇴🇷🇺🇸🇪🇫🇮. Special focus on climate crisis, security, press-freedom, anti-dictatorship. I support 🇺🇦.

Kirkenes, Norway
Joined December 2011
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
The Wagner PWC defector running across the border to Norway was quickly brought to Oslo because of extreme security considerations. He could be a major witness in war crime charges against Yevgeny Prigozhin.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
It’s only a question of time before Russian fishing vessels will be banned from making port calls to Northern Norway.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
April 7, 1989: Northern Fleet sub ‘Komsomolets’ K-278 sinks after fire in Norwegian Sea. 42 died, 27 rescued. Wreak still on the seabed with one reactor and two plutonium warheads.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
17 days
Be aware, we are now witnessing a disinformation campaign by 🇷🇺 trolls claiming the drones attacking Olenya airbase, Kola Peninsula, are coming from 🇫🇮. Not true and aimed to distract attention away from the fact that air defense hasn’t improved much since Mathias Rust’s days.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
7 months
#Kirkenes shows solidarity with #Ukraine with largest-to-date demonstration outside 🇷🇺 Consulate General.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
1 year
What a photo, what a story. On this date 1987.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
Not since Soviet times have more nuclear-powered icebreakers been operating simultaneously in the #Arctic #Rosatomflot
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
1 year
Sør-Varanger kommune vedtok i kveld å fortsette "vennskapsavtalen" med 🇷🇺Pechenga, en kommune som har sendt flere tusen soldater til Ukraina ☠️ Ordførerens bil er merket "Z", skoler, barnehager har våpenopplæring og støtten til krigsforbrytelsene er stor. Ufattelig pinlig.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 years
BREAKING: Norway's oil fund freezes all assets in Russian companies, starts process to sell all the stocks, says 🇳🇴 PM @jonasgahrstore
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
11 months
The 'Sevmorput' and 'Newnew Polar Bear' sailed over the Balticconnector and the telecom cable in pair at the time the damage occurred. Now, they are following each other outside northern Norway, en route to Asia via the northern coast of Siberia.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
4 months
1/2. Så, Russland jammer GPS signaler over Øst-Finnmark og kødder med vår sivile sikkerhet. Mens 🇳🇴 nekter alliert NATO signalspaningsfly adgang til luftrommet øst av 24 °Ø, angivelig for å berolige 🇷🇺. Litt vanskelig å forstå i dagens situasjon.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
20 days
Airspace over Kola Peninsula closed. Several passenger flights suddenly redirected, including this Emirates A380 that circled over #Kirkenes in 🇳🇴🇷🇺 border region before flying around Kola. Does anyone know what is happening?
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
... PWC should of course be PMC (although the misspelling could be translated to what it actually is: A kind of Private shitty WC)
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
7 months
Hvis noen lurer på hva som foregår rett over grensen i Sør-Varanger sin 🇷🇺 "vennskapskommune" Petsjenga har jeg samlet en liten billedkavalkade om barne- og ungdomsarbeidet. #Skam #Kirkenes #Nikel #СлаваУкраїні!
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
Severomorsk 🇷🇺 marks 1-year anniversary of Russia’s all-out war. For one or another reason, Norway’s bordertown #Kirkenes is still in friendship-agreement with this aggressive shadow-of-mordor settlement.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
26 days
This August 2000 video can never be seen to often. Nadya Tylik, mother of a sailor from the Kursk submarine, shouted at Putin: ‘They’re dying for $50 a month, and you don’t care, pig.’ Then she get an injection and lost consciousness.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
8 days
‘Whaledimir’ is dead. The Beluga escaped from 🇷🇺 GUGI’s base on the Kola Peninsula in 2019 and has since enyojed freedom along the coast of 🇳🇴.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
11 months
Today’s 🇺🇸 on-scene intelligence collection on 🇷🇺 (Kola Peninsula) went almost north to Utsjok 🇫🇮 to between 27° and 28° longitude, way east of what 🇳🇴 allows allied SIGINT flights in Finnmark.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
8 months
Here comes the sun over the horizon for the first time in two months. #PolarNight #Kirkenes #Arctic
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
6 months
Not often there are traffic jam when driving from 🇳🇴 into 🇫🇮 Lapland, but so it is tonight as Finnish troops head home from #NordicResponse24
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
7 months
For n't gang har kommunestyret i Sør-Varanger unnlatt å si opp sin skandaløse vennskapsavtale med 🇷🇺 Petsjenga, kommunen rett over grensen hvor krigsforbrytere vandrer fritt, barnehagebarn får våpenopplæring og ordføreren kjører rundt med sin Z-dekorerte bil. Ufattelig pinlig!
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
15 days
#Kirkenes shows solidarity on #Ukraine ’s Independence Day. No better place for us in northern 🇳🇴 to stand united with 🇺🇦 than outside @rusgkkirkenes . Mayor @magnusmaeland in front👍#СлаваУкраїні!
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
Kudos til Ine, Audun, Bjørn Arild og Raymond som holder seg saklige i en debatt mot Putin's løpegutt i Norge. #NRKDebatt #slavaukrainii #СЛАВАУКРАЇНІ
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
19 days
Norwegian Customs lack overview of attempted smuggling of banned goods to Russia via the North. While Estonia found that about every 7th person traveling to 🇷🇺 carried banned wartime products, 🇳🇴 can’t detail even one single confiscated microchip.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
4 years
This is a good day for the environment. Northern Europe's largest SO2-polluter, the smelter in Nikel, closes forever. Last smelting took place this morning. Now, White Christmas can come. #Nornickel #Nikel
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
10 months
Will FSB push its primitive hybrid operation with migrants further north towards Salla 🇫🇮 and Storskog 🇳🇴 as Finland last week imposted restrictions on southern checkpoints?
@blogger51
Blogger51
10 months
После закрытия части финских КПП в Ленинградской мигранты смещаются на север и уже появились в южной Карелии. Думаю, что скоро увидим и в Мурманской области
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
11 months
Russia again triggers NOTAM-warning for large #BarentsSea area, overlapping into 🇳🇴 EEZ north of Varanger fjord. Valid from early morning on Putin's birthday, October 7.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
6 months
Jeg oppfordrer alle mine kollegaer i @redaktorene og journalister til lese denne meget godt poengterte kommentaren av @cokristiansen om pressens ansvar mot 🇷🇺 propaganda og varsomhet med kilder kontrollert av diktatorens informasjonsbyråer.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
Kirkenes in solidarity #Sl ávaUkrayíni
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 years
Russians, Ukrainians and Norwegians in joint protest outside 🇷🇺 Consulate General in 🇳🇴 bordertown #Kirkenes #UkraineWar
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
1 month
Mayor of #Vard ø in 🇳🇴 northeast corner wants to tear down Russian-initiated war monuments. 'They are misused by sympathisers and 🇷🇺 authorities,' he says.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
9 months
Fire in some of the cabins onboard 🇷🇺 nuclear-powered containership Sevmoroput at port in Murmansk. No danger for the reactor, Rosatomflot assures. Let’s hope this troubled vessel will be out of operation for a looong time. ☢️⚛️
@twi_murmansk
Мурманск
9 months
На судне «Севморпуть» в Мурманске произошло возгорание
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
11 months
#Burevestnik update: Rosatom's radiation data collection aircraft (Be-976) are on standby at Rogachevo air field (Novaya Zemlya), while the U.S. WC-135W Constant Phoenix atmospheric collection plane is arriving to the European theatre. Putin's birthday is Saturday, Oct. 7.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
10 months
Russian propaganda has since June pushed a story about a secret $100 million Pentagon-operated military bio-lab at Bear Island in the 🇳🇴 Arctic. With Moscow's new Svalbard science initiative, the disinformation moves on. (⏬ Click to read)
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
4 months
Quite spectacular story about how an 🇷🇺 agent from Murmansk built a web of contacts in Northern Norway, started to recruit spies to take photos of 🇳🇴 military installations and mapping of exile-Russians.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
The paradox of friendship towns: Vadsø and Murmansk this week sent one fire truck each to Ukraine 🇺🇦. (The armoured one from Murmansk went to illegally occupied Donetsk).
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
4 months
Norway closes Storskog border for Russians tourists and shoppers from May 29. "A response to Russia’s illegal war of aggression against Ukraine," says 🇳🇴 Justice Minister.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
1 year
Lawnmower à la Finnmark.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
6 months
Leading 🇷🇺 opposition politician Boris Nemtsov was assassinated next to the Kremlin on this day 9 years ago. We in the Barents Observer have named our meeting room after him.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
Donald Duck quiz i @dagbladet - Finn en feil:
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
5 months
– Vi har ikke tatt inn over oss hvor galt det er på vei, poengterer @kaeggen . - Sendrektigheten vi har sett når det gjelder både å øke produksjonen av ammunisjon og våpen – og å sende det til 🇺🇦, gir 🇷🇺 et mulighetsvindu som er svært bekymringsfullt.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 months
Hammer and sickle, Soviet flags and slogans. What is taken down across Russia's neighboring countries are hoisted, re-painted and new-made at Norway's Svalbard archipelago.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
6 months
To år etter Russlands fullskala krig mot Ukraina velger gjenopprettede @Finnmarkfylkesk å bruke penger på å promotere reiseportalen de drifter som aktivt fremhever bruk av russiske statlige selskaper og hvordan du kan hygge deg med gode kulturopplevelser i Murmansk.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
Navy history in making. 🇳🇴🇬🇧
@RichWoodUK
Richard Wood 🇬🇧
2 years
HMS Queen Elizabeth, the UK’s flagship aircraft carrier, will sail up Oslofjord with her carrier strike group on Monday. The sight of the ship docked at Akershuskaia in central Oslo will be a real show of UK-Norway defence cooperation. 🇬🇧🇳🇴 #ukandnorway #WeAreNATO
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
1 year
Listen to the answers in my interview with 🇷🇺 Consul General Nikolai Konygin (🇳🇴 #Kirkenes ) about how it is to lay wreaths on Liberation Day as Russia attacks another neighbouring country in Europe.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
4 months
'Russerne kommer ikke. De er her allerede.' Viktig sak i A-magasinet (paywall) om grenselandet mellom fred og krig i grenselandet mellom 🇳🇴🇷🇺 #Kirkenes av @Heleneskjegg
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
4 months
2/2. NATO’s signalspaningsfly, som er utmerket til å spore kilder til GPS jamming, flyr nå regelmessig langs 🇫🇮 grense til 🇷🇺 helt nord av Inari. Med panoramasikt til Kolahalvøya. Hvorfor forhindrer 🇳🇴 bedre innsamling av data? Ja til økt NATO samarbeid for å sikre Øst-Finnmark.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
1 year
Det er unnfallenhet overfor Putin-regimet at samarbeidsavtalen med Petsjenga ikke sies opp. Kommunen er hjem til 200. motoriserte infanteribrigade og 61. marineinfanteribrigade. Begge har sendt tusenvis av terrorsoldater til Ukraina.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 months
Strange Russian Navy movements outside Norway. Viktor-III sub Tambov (B-448) steams along the surface, heading north together with two other Northern Fleet warships.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 years
Kjære Norge, Dette er flaut, pinlig, kvalmt og representerer absolutt ikke Kirkenes. Våre tanker er ikke på egen navle, men på hvordan sadisten Putins bombing av barn og sivile i Ukraina, samt terrorisering av eget folk hjemme, kan stoppes raskest mulig ❤️
@vgnett
VG
3 years
Ap-ordfører og Russland-nabo: Vi skulle latt være å sende våpen
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
5 months
Tiny amount of radioactive iodine ☢️ in air measured in #Troms ø 🇳🇴, the nuclear safety directorate @dsa_stralevern informs. Source unkown for now.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
‘Stand with Ukraine’ - tonight’s wall of the office-building home to the Barents Observer in #Kirkenes .
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
Meanwhile, outside Russia’s Consulate General in Kirkenes. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦🇳🇴 #СлаваУкраїні
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
4 months
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
18 days
Kola Peninsula is again under drone attack. Locals have posted photos and videos. One shot down next to Olenya airbase, from where Russia frequently sends Tu-95MS bombers attacking civilian targets In 🇺🇦.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 months
Egentlig en ganske kul arbeidsplass vi har bygget opp her i grenselandet mot det russiske diktaturet. TV2 @oysteinbogen og @TV2aage har vært på besøk.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 years
For one or another reason, 🇷🇺🛩 with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov avoided 🇸🇪🇫🇮 air space en route from Moscow to #Troms ø 🇳🇴 tonight for the #BarentsCouncil meeting.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 months
Air defense matters: All twelve cruise missiles 🚀 launched from 🇷🇺 Olenya-based ✈️ bombers shot down in overnight attack on 🇺🇦.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
6 months
Z-inspired troublemakers have for the third time in a week vandalised the tribute to #Navalny set up by locals in 🇳🇴 #Kirkenes across the street from 🇷🇺 @rusgkkirkenes . The “battle of portraits”is on.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
7 years
Cross-border fake spy-operation initiated by #FSB to discredit Norway, says former politician in #Murmansk
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
5 months
Barents Observer, April 11, 2014: My editorial on how ripple effects from 🇷🇺 annexation of Crimea would harm cooperation up north. The text made regional politicians in northern 🇳🇴 call for limiting our editorial freedom 🤣😇 (They didn't succeed)
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
6 months
I guess the world has never witnessed a regime so afraid of a funeral as we today see in Moscow. Convoy of wagons with face-covered blackhats heading towards the church where #NavalnyFuneral takes place.
@mediazzzona
Медиазона
6 months
Сегодня в Москве должны пройти похороны Алексея Навального Силовики выстроили ограждения на пути от метро Марьино ��о Борисовского кладбища. К храму съезжаются автозаки. Видео: Медиазона
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 years
I lack words….🥺
@GlebYarovoy
Gleb Yarovoy
3 years
Petrozavodsk/Petroskoi city hall tonight. That’s the level of crazyness and stupidity even in most europeanised locations in Russia
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
6 months
At the University in Arkhangelsk, students were invited to learn the FACES of the "heroes" fighting Russia's war against Ukraine 🤣
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 months
Happy to join World’s Northernmost Midsummer Party 🇳🇴🍾🥳🎉 in Ny-Ålesund #Svalbard
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 years
🇺🇦 colors on the wall of a bar in #Kirkenes 🇳🇴, a 15 minutes drive from border to 🇷🇺 in the north. #UkraineWar #StopTheWar
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 months
Norway's self-imposed restrictions hindering allied intelligence flights in the airspace east of Lakselv (24°E) becomes weaker and weaker. With today's flight, even comical. Guess it is only a question of time before we will see RC-135V over eastern-Finnmark.
@nukestrat
Hans Kristensen
3 months
Another first precipitated by new Cold War and NATO expansion: Instead of flying up and back to mission over Barents Sea, the USAF RC-135V Rivet Joint returned over Finland and Baltic States along the Russian border.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
7 years
Denmark's TV2 made great video of Typhoon sailing through Danish waters today. Watch the outfit of the armed guard!
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
28 days
Kursk and August is no good combination for Putin. First a sub, then a oblast. August 12 marks the 24th anniversary for the disaster in the Barents Sea. Gonna be interesting to see how the memorial for the lost oblast will look like.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 months
Interesting path by 🇷🇺 Northern Fleet tug Nikolay Chiker outside west coast of 🇳🇴. Is the Kazan (K-561) in the same area? And why did the Tambov (B-448), Admiral Levchenko and Ivan Green abort their announced participation in Russia' Main Naval Parade?
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 years
Meanwhile, charging an EV in Russia.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 years
20 journalists that used to work for Meduza in Moscow have all left 🇷🇺. Also journalists from TV channel Dozhd’, radio and newspaper Novaya Gazeta are leaving.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
20 days
Meanwhile, one of Rossiya's Special Flight Detachment aircraft landed at Murmansk airport a few hours ago. Said to bring Nikolai Patruchev to town. (Source Арктического Обозревателя on Telegram).
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
3 months
Russia's plan to attract international partners from 'friendly states' to Svalbard for research and higher education gets hindered. New 🇳🇴 Whitepaper from the Governments outlines strategy.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
6 months
Times of changes: .. ved forrige regisserte seremoni i 2018 sendte @erna_solberg følgende gratulasjonshilsen til diktator Putin. Bare nevner det....
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
1 year
Yes👍 Made it to Bjørnøya (Bear Island) at 74.3° North. Halfway between North Cape and Spitsbergen.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
4 months
De er ikke veldig mange, de som støtter Putin-regimet her i Kirkenes. Men 9. mai lokker det russiske Generalkonsulatet dem frem for å markere ‘seiersdagen’. Blir interessant å observere.
@oysteinbogen
Øystein Bogen
4 months
Nervøsitet før russer-markering i Kirkenes. Les mine inntrykk fra grensebyen her.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
2 years
Just saying, interesting week ahead. These are Russia's NOTAMs warnings in my neighbourhood: Huge areas closed off for military activities in the #BarentsSea , #KaraSea #LaptevSea & #ArcticOcean . Onshore shootings at #Pechenga , #Plesetsk , #Kola #Vorkuta and a few others locations.
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@NilsenThomas
Thomas Nilsen
20 days
Seems to open now. Aeroflot en route to Apatity flies north again after stand-by over the White Sea.
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