The Otto von Rosen affair Between 15 and 20 January 1917, the Swedish Baron Otto von Rosen was arrested in what is now the Kautokeino municipality or in today's Karasjok municipality, near the border with Finland. He was suspected of espionage. He was sent to Kristiania (now Oslo) and released in February 1917 without conviction but expelled to Sweden. It turned out that when his luggage was searched, it contained spy equipment and a sugar cube containing anthrax bacteria. This was confirmed by analysis 80 years later. Otto von Rosen had been mentioned in newspapers for suspicious activity in the Karesuando area earlier in January, and was then suspected of being a German spy. Finland in 1917 was part of the Russian Empire and at war with Germany. The distance between Karesuando and Kautokeino is approximately 70 kilometers in a straight line.
The Otto von Rosen affair Between 15 and 20 January 1917, the Swedish Baron Otto von Rosen was arrested in what is now the Kautokeino municipality or in today's Karasjok municipality, near the border with Finland He was suspected of espionage. He was sent to Kristiania (now Oslo) and released in February 1917 without conviction but expelled to Sweden. It turned out that when his luggage was searched, it contained spy equipment and a sugar cube containing anthrax bacteria. This was confirmed by analysis 80 years later. Otto von Rosen had been mentioned in newspapers for suspicious activity in the Karesuando area earlier in January, and was then suspected of being a German spy. Finland in 1917 was part of the Russian Empire and at war with Germany. The distance between Karesuando and Kautokeino is approximately 70 kilometers in a straight line.