Bulgaria's President, Georgi Parvanov, declared Thursday he expected serious changes after the latest scandal involving tapes of discrediting conversations between some of Bulgaria's key political figures.

Three tapes of conversations between the Director of the Customs Agency, Gen, Vanyo Tanov and 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.

The full transcripts of the tapes reveal a wide-ranging conflict between Djankov and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov, as well as pressure on part of Tsvetanov on Customs Agency Director Vanyo Tanov, who complains that Tsvetanov and the Interior were forcing him and his staff not to check on potential abuses by certain large companies, and to focus instead on others.

On Thursday, President Parvanov warned the "tossing of special surveillance devices around" would not lead to anything good for the country, adding this trend is placing Bulgaria further and further away from joining the Schengen zone.

"What comments should I make? This is pure torture.  The content of these conversations is quite alarming. But, of course, when you have once triggered the leaking of special surveillance tapes, you should expect to be attacked the same way," Parvanov pointed out, reiterating there would be serious consequences from the latest scandal, however decisions here "need to be made inside another building, not my office," he said.

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