The opposition's goal is to stop Bulgaria's Schengen zone entry, Bulgaria's Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, declared when commenting on the latest scandal surrounding tapes of conversations between several key personalities released Wednesday.

In an interview for the TV channel Nova Televizia Thursday morning, Borisov pointed out halting Bulgaria's joining of Schengen would be deemed a critical loss for his ruling Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party, ahead of this year's presidential and local elections and this is why the information from the tapes has been released at this precise moment.

Three tapes of conversations between Customs Agency Head Gen., Vanyo Tanov, with his superiors – Finance Minister, Simeon Dajnkov, and Deputy Finance Minister, Vladislav Goranov, – were released at a news conference Wednesday by the Galeria weekly, a paper believed to be the mouthpiece of Aleksei Petrov, (currently under house arrest) former special agent of the State National Security Agency DANS, who has been investigated on organized crime charges since his arrest in the much advertised "Operation Octopus" in February 2010.

In another Thursday morning interview, for the TV channel bTV, Borisov further stated he did not see anything wrong in spying on ministers, deputy prime ministers, and agencies' heads, hinting he believes the eavesdropping could have been done with special surveillance devices.

"All spying is done with a prosecutor's and court warrant, as the law postulates. Ministers must work knowing they are watched all the time," the PM said.

"Some man, most likely wearing a hat and glasses, came to the offices of the newspaper, and left some materials, which they say came from a private business. Meanwhile, for months now, rumors are circulating in media and public space, that there are such tapes. We are now checking the source. When I know the source, I will comment more, but it is very alarming if these tapes were made by private structures," according to Borisov.

The PM further repeated that even if the conversations were 100% true, any minister and high-ranking individual in Bulgaria would be consistently spied on over the cabinet's fight against organized crime and corruption, adding he was going to go to the bottom of recorded, and hard for him to believe, statements the Interior Ministry is protecting some particular private businesses and vowing to punish the guilty.

"My ministers do not have time to forge friendships. They are here for 3-4 years to work to the max. I do not want them to love each other; I do want my deputies to hate each other, to be at odds, so not one suspects any political cover-up," Borisov reiterated.

The PM explained there were very deep controversies between Deputy Prime Ministers, Djankov and Tsvetanov, regarding police layoffs, declaring despite all this, he had full trust in both of them, along with the Customs Agency Head, Vanyo Tanov.

Borisov further offered high praise to the Customs for the record 2010 bust of contraband cigarettes, 4 times higher than the total seized during the entire term of the previous cabinet.

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