The Barents Observer

There is no information made public that can tell what exploded inside the military boundaries south of the headquarters of Russia's Northern Fleet. 

Hilarious: "I'm a patriot" reads the slogan next to US Air Force F-16 fighter jets painted with trail of smoke in Russia's tricolour. The wall at the new children's school in the military Pechenga district was soon repainted with Su-57s 🤣

Just few hours after he arrived back to Murmansk from a visit to occupied Ukrainian territories, Governor Andrei Chibis sat down with Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin's so-called Commissioner for Children's Rights. Both of them are on international sanctions lists for their involvement in abduction of Ukrainian children.

The 2025 Sønsteby Award is shared equally between NRK’s Beirut-based journalist Yama Wolasmal and the Kirkenes-based Barents Observer.  The newspaper has distinguished itself through its ability to deliver critical and independent journalism at a time of great tensions between Russia and the rest of Europe, the Gunnar Sønsteby Memorial Fund states in the announcement.

With Russia's expansionist war a new security landscape has emerged also in the north, argues professor Njord Wegge. NATO's new members Finland and Sweden have, unlike Norway, no restrictions for allied operations. 

Russia is developing a fleet of naval icebreakers. But none of them took part in the Northern Fleet's expedition that this fall experienced great difficulties in navigating across the Northern Sea Route.

OpEd: Conventional wisdom holds that diplomatic channels are the last you should close in times of tensions. Up north, where small-state Norway borders empire-building Russia, you would think diplomats can help lowering tensions. At least on a regional level. The facts tell a different story. The Russian Consulate General in Kirkenes has no longer any role in diplomatic dialogue. https://lnkd.in/dVyfeB8v

Despite rapidly freezing Arctic waters, Moscow continues to send more than 20 years old ships without ice class to the Northern Sea Route. "They are compromising security," a Norwegian professors in ice navigation says.

Russia's Consulate General in #Kirkenes 🇳🇴 closes its door. The Foreign Ministry in Oslo confirms to the Barents Observer that there is ongoing dialogue about the number of deployed diplomats between the two countries.

Russian fishing vessels made hundreds of port calls to Tromsø, Båtsfjord and Kirkenes in 2023 and first half of 2024. Crew are disembarking and embarking day and night, but only one sanctioned item was confiscated, according to customs data obtained by the Barents Observer.