Energy disputes, pipeline politics, and a takeover of the Sakhalin II project have clouded Russia’s relations with its neighbors and foreign investors.

As the EU and Washington mull diplomatic punishment for a Belarus election they view as a fraud, opposition crowds braving snows and security forces are fast fading.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka is expected to sweep polls March 19 in a presidential election few anticipate will be free or fair.

In light of a disappointing performance by the Belarus democratic opposition, dissident Alexander Kozulin tells cfr.org his supporters will never stop trying to liberalize society in the former Soviet republic.

One of the Belarusian opposition’s few elder statesmen, Stanislav Shushkevich, says the March 19 presidential polls were “absolutely falsified.” In an interview with cfr.org from Minsk, he discusses the election, life in Belarus under President Alexander Lukashenka, and prospects for a peaceful revolt similar to those in Ukraine or Georgia.

Amid signs of slipping popularity, Belarus' authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenka is expected to win a new presidential term on March 19. An official with a prominent Western polling group tells cfr.org Lukashenka is gaining less support from educated, urban youth but will still likely claim a commanding victory.

This commentary from the German Marshall Fund of the United States describes the increasingly erratic behaviour of Alexander Lukashenko, who the Fund characterises as 'the brutal autocrat in charge of Belarus'.

Belarus is an outsider in the political culture of Europe, says this guide to the country from the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The report argues that Belarus is politically, economically and socially far cry from European normality. As the March 2006 presidential elections illustrated, Belarus' democratization efforts of the early 1990s have not only ground to a complete halt but have increasingly given way to open dictatorship under President Alexander Lukashenka.

An interview with Belarusian opposition leader Alexander Milinkevich about the effectiveness of the EU's policies in the country, the next steps of the Belarusian opposition, and the future of the country's relations with Russia.

Supporters of Belarusian opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich defied bans on public rallies to protest reports of widespread fraud during the March 19 presidential polls that overwhelmingly re-elected Alexander Lukashenka as president of the former Soviet republic. But, as cfr.org's Lionel Beehner reports from Minsk, protesters began streaming back home Tuesday evening as the cold Eurasian night began to fall.

Jeffrey Mankoff discusses the oil dispute between Russia and Belarus, and its ramifications for greater Europe.