The official newspaper of the Russian government emerged as an unlikely source of recognition for a European outlet critical of Vladimir Putin and providing sanctuary to exiled Russian journalists. In May, two days after Russia tested its intercontinental ballistic missile system nicknamed Satan II by NATO, Rossiyskaya Gazeta published an article that sparked celebrations in a remote Arctic newsroom.
The story detailing how leading global media reacted to the Sarmat missile test referenced a handful of publications including the BBC, Reuters, the Associated Press, and France 24. Among them was the Barents Observer, a small, journalist-owned online newspaper publishing in English and Russian regarding northern Russia and the Euro-Arctic region from a modest office in Kirkenes, a north-eastern Norwegian town.
This inclusion came as a surprise since the Russian prosecutor general’s office had declared the publication an undesirable organization, and half of its staff journalists appeared on Russia’s wanted list. Editor Thomas Nilsen noted that being listed among what the Russian government newspaper itself called leading global media represented a very good day because it signaled that they had reached the inner circle of the Kremlin. It’s getting harder and harder every day.
Last week, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre and Finnish President Alexander Stubb held a rare phone call with Putin, marking unusual contact between the Russian leader and European heads of state. Støre subsequently stated that big differences in views remained with Putin. Press freedom conditions deteriorated further days later when the Nobel prize-winning independent Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta was forced to close due to intolerable pressure from authorities.
Located a short drive from the Norway-Russia border and housing the sole remaining legal land border crossing from Russia into the European Schengen free-travel area, Kirkenes experiences rising Moscow tensions acutely. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the town has functioned as a refuge for Russians targeted by Putin’s regime, including journalists hired by the Barents Observer. “We are living very close to the border, so we probably saw things earlier than the rest of Europe,” he said.
Denis Zagore, a journalist originally from Murmansk, recently appeared in the Russian interior ministry database under accusations of involvement with an undesirable organization and failing to comply with foreign agent requirements. Officials in Murmansk filed a motion to detain Zagore in absentia, making him the third exiled Barents Observer journalist in Kirkenes to join Russia’s wanted list.
Zagore stated that the move brought no surprise given the predictable actions of the Russian state, adding that he does not intend to change his life as authorities could have located him regardless. His listing followed Olesia Krivtsova, who was sentenced in absentia in July to six years in a penal colony on charges of justifying terrorism and discrediting the Russian army.
Last year, news editor Farida Kurbangaleeva received an in-absentia sentence of eight years in prison for spreading false information about the Russian army and justifying terrorism, following a foreign agent designation and an unsuccessful extradition request to the Czech Republic. Another journalist, Georgii Chentemirov, was added to the foreign agents registry, criminally charged, and fined.
Inside the newspaper office, staff maintain a wanted wall featuring pictures from their Russian listings to make light of ongoing threats and intimidation. While pressure from across the border has persisted for years, Nilsen highlighted a dramatic escalation over recent months. He expressed concern over Putin’s efforts to assert media control beyond Russian borders by targeting European publications and exiled journalists.
While targeted individuals often remove their names from public view and halt war criticisms on social media, the Barents Observer takes the opposite approach. Nilsen asserted that free and independent journalism threatens any dictatorship, declaring that Putin poses a threat to them rather than the reverse.
Designated as a criminal organization, which makes communicating with its journalists a crime within Russia, the newspaper relies on open sources, border crossers, satellite images, flight and shipping radar monitoring, and exiled Russians to gather news. Nilsen acknowledged the growing difficulty of the work while confirming it remains possible.
The outlet additionally faces a high court legal battle in London brought by Russian billionaire Vitaly Orlov, raising fears of bankruptcy. The complaint focuses on five news reports published between 2025 and 2026 concerning Norebo, a fishing company co-founded and majority-owned by Orlov.
Krivtsova, now 23, previously escaped house arrest in Arkhangelsk at age 19 by cutting off her electronic ankle bracelet and fleeing through Belarus to Lithuania. Upon arriving at the Kirkenes office in 2023, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and expressed deep fears of detention, capture, or forced repatriation. She emphasized that physical location offers no safety against a regime determined to silence critics. Captured, somehow sent to Russia,” she said, she arrived suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. “I was really afraid to be detained. Despite her recent sentencing, she speaks with cool pragmatism. “It doesn’t matter actually for Russian special services where you are.
