Suspicions also rose that he had been contacted by German intelligence, that his 1915 trip to Italy had served German interests, and that he was being subsidized with German money. Rakovsky also drew attention to himself after welcoming to Bucharest the pro-German maverick socialist Alexander Parvus. His independence was consequently challenged by the interventionist paper "Adevărul", a former socialist venue, who called Rakovsky "an adventurer without scruples", and viewed him as employed by Parvus and other German socialists. Rakovsky himself alleged that, "under the mask of independence", "Adevărul" and its editor Constantin Mille were in the pay of Take Ionescu. After Romania's entry into the conflict on the side of the Entente in August 1916, having failed to attend the Kienthal Conference due to the closure of borders, he was placed under surveillance and ultimately imprisoned in September, based on the belief that he was acting as a German spy. As Bucharest fell to the Central Powers during the 1916 campaign, he was taken by Romanian authorities to their refuge in Iaşi. Held until after the February Revolution, he was freed by the Russian Army on May 1, 1917, and immediately left for Odessa.