In this Thursday, March 31, 2011 photo a man pulls his collected bundles of card in Minsk, Belarus.
The economic troubles threaten to undermine the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, as Belarus runs out of cash but the best hope for a bailout seems to be Russia, but any money from Moscow is likely to come at a high price, according to Stanislav Bogdankevich, a former head of Belarus’ central bank.
(AP Photo/Sergei Grits)