As the following piece points out, while all attention seems to be focused on the Eurozone bailouts for Ireland, Portugal, and maybe even Spain. Another similarly fashioned bailout is in the process of occurring in Eastern Europe for Belarus, a nation led by an autocratic President who is an ally of Russian PM Vladimir Putin. And whose country he has led since the breakup of the USSR, still maintains most of the old Soviet trappings such as a mostly Socialist command economy, and an undemocratic society where the political status quo is maintained by the state KGB whose name and habits haven't changed from the time of the Soviet Union.

Therefore, due to the kleptocratic and antiqued nature of the Belorussian economy, the state find's it's bankrupt and consistently dependent on big brother to the east. Which leaves Belarus turning to Russia and other better off autocratic former Soviet states for emergency economic assistance in the form of a bailout.

It will be interesting to see where this leads, as the Russians are supposedly demanding a number of concessions from the Belorussian political leadership for this to move forward.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/wo...s-Belarus.html

http://drezner.foreignpolicy.com/pos...anging_belarus