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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.

Tour de Barents

The cross-country ski competition Tour de Barents in April next year will only take place in Norway and Finland.

Mariinsky Ballet Company (Marinsky.ru)

The world famous Russian Mariinsky Ballet Company performed at the Northern Lights Festival in Tromsø, Northern Norway last weekend.

The Canadian researcher Dr Aileen Espíritu has accepted the position as new Director of the Barents Insitute in the Norwegian border town of Kirkenes.

The highest unemployment in Northwest Russia is in the far northern and oil-rich Nenets Autonomous Okrug.

Photo by the Finnish Sauna Society

Finland is the best country in the world to live in, the Newsweek magazine announces.

Peter the Great in Moscow

The 98 meter high monument of Peter the Great currently overlooking the Moscow River might be moved to Arkhangelsk.

Russian visa tricolor

A quickly growing number of foreigners obtain the simplied Russian visas established in a bid to attract skilled specialists.

A total of 52 percent of all Russian Internet users are doing social networking, a study shows.

Pedestrian street in Arkhangelsk

Now everybody can travel along the city streets of Arkhangelsk and go sightseeing on-line. The city is now represented on Yandex maps, the Russian counterpart to Goggle Street View.

Photo: Kremlin.ru

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has demanded a drastic cut in the number of domestic airlines, a day after a plane crash wiped out the entire ice hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

Russia celebrated Orthodox Christmas this weekend, like here at the Malye Korely open air museum outside Arkhangelsk.

Norwegian No. 5 million was born on Monday.

Ostriches may be native to African deserts, but this ostrich farmer says they get by just fine in the Russian Arctic too.