Is Belarus up for grabs?

ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP/Getty Images

Europe's last dictator™ Aleksandr Lukashenko has recently irritated his Moscow benefactors by declining to recognize the new pseudo-states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Looking to capitalize on this friction, the EU has lifted a travel ban on the fourteen-year dictator in the hopes of luring him away from Russian influence:

Officially, the move Monday was in response to the recent release of political prisoners by the Belarussian government. But diplomats in Brussels said they thought that the brief war between Georgia and Russia in August might have prompted alarm among Russia’s other neighbors, including Belarus, about their own independence.

I wouldn't hold my breath. Angry as Lukashenko may be at the Kremlin, he knows where the gas is coming from this winter.