Stepping off the red carpet at the Venice film festival, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez heads for Belarus on Tuesday on his counter-current world tour to rally countries into forming a new natural gas cartel.
Russia energy giant Gazprom has asked Belarus to pay 166 million euros for gas delivered between January and April. The dispute comes at a moment when diplomatic relations between Moscow and Minsk are tense.
Recently, the European Union judged its policy of isolating Belarus counter-productive and decided to lift some of the sanctions against the regime of Alexander Lukashenko (pictured). But what has really changed in Belarus?
European Union members meet in Prague to discuss an "Eastern Partnership" with six former Soviet states designed to foster closer ties without antagonising Russia, and without offering promises of EU accession.
The EU has invited Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko to a summit on relations with ex-Soviet states to take place in May, in a move that could spark criticism over Belarus' human rights record.
The International Monetary Fund has tentatively agreed to a 15-month loan of 1.8 billion euros to Belarus to help it cope with the global financial crisis, despite the country having been described as the "last dictatorship" in Europe by the US.
An election in Belarus that left the opposition still without any seats in parliament sparked protests in the country's capital, and fell "well short" of international standards, according to US and Western monitors.
In this edition: the 2012 European Football Championship in Ukraine and Poland, Latvia's need for gas still dependent on Moscow and the European Humanities University in Belarus forced out of the country in 2004 by the nation's autocratic president.
Belarus opposition parties on Monday were left with no seats in parliament after most votes had been counted in key parliamentary elections, casting doubt on the former Soviet state's bid for reconciliation with the West.
Following the controversial parliamentary elections in Belarus, Web users pile criticism on President Alexander Lukashenko, widely branded an enemy of the democratic process.
