While traveling in the Soviet Union in 1961, Makinen was arrested for espionage and was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment by a closed military tribunal.
Since 1990, Makinen has worked on three international committees as a consultant to the Swedish Foreign Ministry regarding the fate of Raoul Wallenberg, who, sent to Budapest as a diplomat in July, 1944, is credited with having saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from annihilation.
He was arrested on January 17, 1945, by SMERSH through an order from the Deputy Minister of Defense Nikolai Bulganin and brought to Moscow.
A large portion of these reports emanated from the Vladimir Prison located approximately 200 kilometers east of Moscow.
This changed her work schedule in a substantial manner and provided the reason that she could still recall this prisoner after many years had passed.
With Ari Kaplan, a leading database computer expert, Makinen carried out a cell occupancy analysis of Korpus 2.
Makinen concluded that the absence of the documents meant that Soviet authorities had wanted to conceal the identity of the prisoner in solitary confinement.