Byelorussia raised the issue of Abkhazia and South Ossetia once again. As was promised by President Alexander Lukashenko, the two new states' appeal for recognition is submitted for consideration of the autumn session. However, as it turned out, this does not mean that Minsk is going to assert its position by the end of the year.

There is a new omen in the Byelorussian Internet: if the country received a new credit from the International Monetary Fund one should expect it to make advances to Russia.

Some of these days, International Monetary Fund allocated 700 million dollars to Byelorussia. The money will be spent to support the national currency rate. This is the second tranche out of 2,46 bln dollars that the fund promised to allocate on the economic reforms program. On January 14, Minsk received 788 mln dollars at 0,75 annual rate of interest, while the rest of the sum is transferred considering the quarterly reports of the Byelorussian government.

However, this amount is not enough for Byelorussia to overcome the crisis. The country is expecting to receive another 500 million dollars that was to be allocated out of the Russia budget and now, perhaps, will be provided by the EurAsEC Anti-crisis Fund.

This question could have become the point of discussion during the yesterday meeting of Prime Ministers of Russia and Byelorussia Vladimir Putin and Sergey Sidorskiy in the context of the session of the Allied state Council of Ministers; however, it did not.

Neither was there any public discussion of the issues of cooperation in the fuel and energy field. Meanwhile, Minsk is expecting Moscow to provide support in this matter as well. On average, Byelorussia is currently paying 150 dollars per cubic meter of fuel, which is the lowest price throughout Europe and CIS, according to Izvestia.

It is absolutely clear that the price increase will be a great misfortune for Lukashenko's government. Thus, the Byelorussians reckon to postpone the term of switching to European prices until 2015.

How could one actualize the issue of extending the Russian credit and retaining the reduced price for gas? It looks like Minsk decided to play an old card by mentioning the possible recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

The Byelorussian opposition is sneering at the matter in the Internet forums: why not put the matter out for the auction? Who is going to stake more, Russia, or the West?

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