Russian World Trade Organisation (WTO) ambitions might do more to create a free Belarus than EU political pressure, finance experts say.
The logic goes that cheap Russian oil and preferential access to Russian industrial markets gives president Alexander Lukashenko the cash to buy support at home and in Russia.
But if Moscow gets into the WTO in the next six months as planned, oil costs will begin to spike and Belarusian tractors will start competing for roubles with European and...
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Already a member? Login hereAndrew Rettman is EUobserver's foreign editor, writing about foreign and security issues since 2005. He is Polish, but grew up in the UK, and lives in Brussels. He has also written for The Guardian, The Times of London, and Intelligence Online.