journalists, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) has discovered criminal connections behind the real estate where the Heydar Aliyev foundation was located in Bucharest. The foundation, named after the father of the current President Aliyev was inaugurated in 2007, during the presidency of Traian Băsescu. In Bucharest, President Băsescu personally opened a memorial park for Heydar Aliyev. The current President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev was twice decorated by the Romanian Presidents. Despite his close ties with Azerbaijani government, Traian Băsescu became one of co-authors of the controversial statement on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, issued by European Parliament on June 10, 2020. Comments regarding King Michael In June 2011, during a televised talk-show, president Băsescu made a somewhat disputed remark about former King Michael of Romania saying that "he was a slave to the Russians" and calling his 1947 abdication "an act of treason". The president noted that King Michael was the official head of state at the time of the events in question—both during the alliance with Nazi Germany, and during the Soviet occupation. This triggered a wave of criticism, and some letters demanding he resign, from the opposition parties and their sympathizers, who expressed their disapproval of such an interpretation of Romanian history, and the perceived lack of respect towards the former king. President Băsescu added that if he had been in Marshal Antonescu's place, he too would have ordered the Romanian troops to cross the Prut River and attack the USSR, with the purpose of regaining Bessarabia, lost in 1940. In response to this, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a press statement asking for the immediate response of "civilized Europe to this justification of Nazi aggression against USSR and dishonor to the memory of millions lost during World War II," and called Băsescu's declarations "shameless bravado". On 23 July he told the public he "deeply regrets" his comments about King Michael calling it a sensitive issue. Collaboration with the Securitate In June 2019, the (CNSAS) published documents provided by the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) and General Directorate for Defense Intelligence (DGIA), by which Traian Băsescu had been recruited by the Securitate as informant in 1972, under the code name "Petrov", and started to provide reports on his colleagues since his freshman year. According to the law 187/1999, the status of Securitate collaborator has to be confirmed by a Court of Appeal. On 5 September 2019, in