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.
Since the end of the Second World War, many people in northern Finland have refused to talk about the friendship they shared with German soldiers. Now, that’s starting to change.
Little did Fred Flintstone on the coast of the Barents Sea know about his rock carvings potential trouble-making for a multi-billion oil terminal 7,000 years later in history.
They sailed through the perpetual darkness of winter to avoid being seen. They sailed through violent storms, the freezing sea spray turning guy wires into ice-laden cables thicker than a man’s arm.
Since June 2015, distribution of many everyday goods, such as toothpaste and cleaning products, is a complicated case in Russia. New federal regulations on alcohol consumption state that products containing over 0.5 percent alcohol are subject to licensing.
The Finnish Ministry of Education has turned down applications from municipalities in eastern Finland on the replacing the compulsory Swedish language with Russian.
Sari Pöyhönen is a Finnish journalist, media and culture worker living in Murmansk since 2010. She likes to take photos of everyday life and you can follow her photo blog from Murmansk here on BarentsObserver. New images will be added as Sari meets new people and sees seasons change in the world’s largest city north of the Arctic Circle through the camera’s lens.
In the 1600s, the fishing village of Vardø was believed to be close to hell. It was here that 91 men and women were convicted of witchcraft and executed.
