In a rapidly changing Arctic, the region's indigenous people are standing at the forefront of climate change and resource development – a situation that's putting them increasingly in the international spotlight and raising questions about their role in Arctic policy making.
10 Barents Spektakel festivals in a row in Kirkenes calls for a one year festival break for the organizers in the art curator group "Pikene på Broen". The next festival will probably be held in the winter of 2015.
KIRKENES: With a floodlight projector designed for giant sport arenas, Stefano Cagol is on a path to identify and underline the borders of Europe and their fate. See our video interview with Cagol.
RAYAKOSKI: Once a year you can walk around the stone cairn marking the place where Norway, Russia and Finland meet, without breaking the law. This is during the annual Barents Ski Race, which runs on all the three countries’ territories.
Countdown to Sochi 2014 Olympic winter games has started. Torch-bearers will bring the flame through the entire Russian part of the Barents Region in October and November.
KIRKENES: The Barents Spektakel is Norway´s most border-crossing festival. For five days each year the little Norwegian border town of Kirkenes explodes in culture events, concerts with international top bands and political debates. See photos from the 2013 festival.
Staff and locals at the iconic outdoor museum of wooden architecture fear newly appointed director, ex-governor of Karelia Andrey Nelidov, will develop Kizhi into a tourist machine destroying the World Heritage site.
Finnish director Maija Kaipainen from YLE won the Grand Prix prize under Northern Character film festival 2012, while Norwegian director Per Kristian Olsen won the documentary prize.
Two years ago his mother, Queen Sonja of Norway, attended the festival. In February 2013 the Crown Prince of Norway will have the same pleasure to visit the border town of Kirkenes during the spektakular days.
Gazprom slashes gas production plans at the huge Bovanekovo field and could be forced to radically change its grand development scheme for the gas-rich Arctic peninsula.
Russian President Vladimir criticizes the United Shipbuilding Corporation for delays in delivery of warships to the navy and appoints new head of the state-run company.
KIRUNA: the Arctic Council’s biodiversity group today released the “Arctic Biodiversity Assessment”, a report containing the best available science on the status and trends of Arctic biodiversity and accompanying policy recommendations for biodiversity conservation.
After having been on the verge of bankruptcy, the Northland Resources now confirms that it has the funding needed for continued development of the great Kaunisvaara iron mine project in northern Sweden.
World Wildlife Fund has launched a web-based map showing natural resources and updated overviews of activities like shipping or oil drilling in the Arctic.
In a rapidly changing Arctic, the region's indigenous people are standing at the forefront of climate change and resource development – a situation that's putting them increasingly in the international spotlight and raising questions about their role in Arctic policy making.
10 Barents Spektakel festivals in a row in Kirkenes calls for a one year festival break for the organizers in the art curator group "Pikene på Broen". The next festival will probably be held in the winter of 2015.
Russia’s crack-down on foreign funded groups have reached Nordic Council’s information office in Kaliningrad. Carl Bildt and the other Nordic Foreign Ministers lodge sharp protest.
EU’s Economic and Social Committee recommends in its Arctic Policy opinion that key civil society partners should be given a stronger advisory role in the Barents Euro-Arctic Council.
The town of Kirkenes on the border to Russia was blessed with unusual nice weather on this year’s National Day. Have a look at how the towns’ people celebrated “syttende mai”.
Last Thursday people all over Russia celebrated Victory Day, which marks the capitulation of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in the Second World War. BarentsObserver brings you photos from the celebrations in Murmansk, Nikel, Arkhangelsk and Litsa.