The Kola River in the northern part of the Kola Peninsula, northwestern Russia, flows into the Barents Sea via the Kola Bay. The river is a unique place for reproduction of salmon and an important drinking water source for more than 500 000 people of Murmansk and of surrounding municipalities. To evaluate the environmental status of the Kola river watershed on the basis of the hydrogeochemical characteristics sampling of the dissolved (<0.22 µm) and suspended (>0.22 µm) phases on fourteen sites along the Kola river and its tributaries was performed during July 2001, September 2001, April 2002, May 2002 and July 2002. Major(Ca, K, Mg, Na, S, Si, HCO3 and Cl), trace (Al, As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb,Sr, Ti, and Zn) elements, total and particulate organic carbon(TOC and POC), nitrogen and phosphorous were analysed. Surprisingly, the levels of major nutrients (P and N), as well of major and trace elements in the Kola River, with the exception of Na, Cl, Cu, Zn and Ni, were close to natural baseline levels of other boreal rivers of circumpolar regions, much lower than was anticipated from the speculative earlier reports of extensive contamination from the Kola River to the Arctic See. The comparison with the boreal pristine Kalix River, Northern Sweden, shows that, except for Na, Cl, Cu, Zn and Ni, which 2-3 times exceed the concentrations in the Kalix River, the levels of other major and trace elements are close to or even below the levels in the Kalix River. However, the results also demonstrate that pollutants from the two major point sources:1) Mine tailings and the dam of the iron ore concentration plant in Olenegorsk in the upper part of the basin and 2) the Varlamov, the Medveziy and the Zemlyanoy creeks, draining the area of the large agricultural enterprises in the lower part of the watershed, have a major influence on the water quality of the Kola River. Seasonal variations in Ca, Mg, Na, S, Cl, HCO3, Mo, Sr and Ba show patterns similar to the conductivity with the highest concentrations during low flow discharge in winter and lowest values during spring snow melt in May due to dilution. The main transport of dissolved Al,Mn, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn occurs during high water discharge (spring flood in May), related to release of air-borne pollutants accumulated in the snow pack in the drainage area by an intensive snowmelt in May, whereas the minimum in concentrations appears during low water discharge in winter (September for Zn). The data on speciation of metals in water column show that the dominant migration of Sr,Mo, Ba, As and Cu in the Kola River occurs in dissolved (<0.22 µm) phase (>90% of the total concentration), whereas 40-60% of the transport of Co, Al, Fe, Zn, Mn and Cr occur in the suspended phase (>0.22 µm).