Two hundred kilometres above the Arctic Circle hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers are finding a new life in northern Norway, but recently the doors have been shutting on those desperate to start fresh in the High North.
The Norwegian Barents Secretariat will over the next three years grant €18 million to people-to-people projects in the Barents Region. “This gives us a unique possibility to develop even better cross border relations in the north,” says Secretary General Rune Rafaelsen.
Solovki: Scrap metal, oil-barrels, chemicals leaked into the soil and various waste. This is what meets tourists at the newly opened cruise port at Solovki. Here, Arkhangelsk authorities hope to boost international tourism.
The non-governmental organization Kola Ecological Center in Apatity believes they are under watch as Russia’s new NGO-law enters force from November 21.
The controversial law on education, signed by President Vladimir Putin on New Year’s Eve, states that classes in non-Russian languages cannot be conducted to the detriment teaching in Russian language.
The prestigious Andrey Sakharov prize, given by the Norwegian Helsinki Committee to the famous Russian election watchdog GOLOS triggers registration as a “foreign agent”.
The number of Russian organizations listed as “foreign agents” is growing rapidly and might soon include also sociological polling centers, research institutes and others receiving support from abroad.
Ivan Moseev, head of the Pomor society and former Director of the Pomor Institute at the University of Arkhangelsk, who was found guilty of extremism, has turned to the European Court of Human Rights.
Norwegian and Finnish road authorities have agreed to establish joint projects to improve road standards on two different roads connecting the countries’ northern regions.
