KIRKENES: Transnational ideas and interaction is a powerful engine for development, Guvernor Dmitry Dmitriyenko says in the Kirkenes Conference.

A fire broke out aboard the coast guard vessel “Ural” yesterday while it was docked in Murmansk. This is the third fire in a military vessel in only six weeks.

Kirkenes is preparing for the Barents Spektakel 2012 festival. Stages for performances are being built, concerts are being rehearsed, people are arriving from near and far.

Never before has so many crossed the borders between Russia’s Kola Peninsula and Finland.

Tears down newly established check-point in the border zone road towards Norway.

Norway is urgently expanding its border station to Russia to meet booming traffic. The new constructions will however soon be demolished to clear the way for a brand new border station.

Visa boom to Norway as northern-Norway, the fjords and Oslo allures Russians.

Nearly everyone that applies in Murmansk get visa to Norway.

FSB’s border guard service plans to use seaplanes in monitoring of Russia’s border rivers and Arctic waters.

Border guard service of FSB shrinks the formal border zone so towns like Nikel and Zapolyarny can freely be visited. The checkpoint at Titovka is gone and the area is ready become Russia’s first zone for visa free travel with a Schengen-country.