“Bombshell No. 2” in last week’s “Riga Gate” development related to the question of whether Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis secretly taped deliberations at a recent Eurogroup meeting in the Latvian capital.

A NYTimes feature on the self-described “erratic Marxist” said as much; Varoufakis subsequently and repeatedly denied it, “fairy tales”, uttered thrice, was his response to reporters.

On Saturday it was the turn of Greece social insurances minister, a former telephone company labour unionist, to offer his explanation…

“They all tape (sessions) in there … should we be political hypocrites? They don’t know what was said there (Riga)? Everyone was writing what Varoufakis said ( in camera),” was Dimitris Stratoulis’ initial,  but not final statement.

“In other words, who represents their country and doesn’t come back to brief, with his own manner, the government and prime minister about what was said?”, he noted, reiterating that Varoufakis has denied the claim.