A new leaked tape further details the conversations Zaev’s right hand man Dragi Raskovski had related to the 7.7 million EUR contract to purchase air traffic control equipment from the Italian Leonardo company.

The new tape, published by the Lider news site this evening, reveals that the Government’s Secretary General Raskovski was aware the conversation is likely illegal. At one point during the conversation, Raskovski sounds aggitated and instructs the other people present to speed things up, while warning them the matter will be investigated.

We are sitting here for half an hour. Stop dribbling me. You are doing things that are subject to an investigation. Don’t play games with me, don’t provoke me, Raskovski is heard saying, while another voice adds “the whole world works this way”, apparently encouraging the group to make the deal. At this point, Raskovski tells the others in the group to speak more quietly, apparently conceding that he knows they are doing something improper.

Raskovski instructs the group to complete the deal within three days, even as agency officials tell him that they are not sure they have the authority to decide. In another segment, an official warns Raskovski about adhering to the rules of the EBRD bank, which funded the entire project.

A number of issues were raised with the Leonardo bid, which was allegedly not the lowest of all bids, and was submitted late. The other major issue is Raskovski’s mere presence at a meeting with officials from Leonardo and the M-NAV agency, whose then director Kliment Cepunjovski allegedly recorded the meeting. Prime Minister Zoran Zaev defended Raskovski, reassuring the public that nobody would ask for a bribe at a meeting with eight people present.

In the original recording, Raskovski was heard using a series of racist slurs, saying that Italians are like “Gypsies” and spouts a theory on the cultural characteristics of “sub-equatorial races”. He refused to resign from his post, and while acknowledging the authenticity of the tapes, he pretended not to understand media questions when asked about his racist remarks.