The presidential election in Belarus was planned for 19 December 2010. Although from the point of view of international law, it sounds cynical and ridiculous, it seems that the beginning of the “match” for the country governed by Alexander Lukashenko, in which one of the “main players” is Russia, was the gas dispute from June 2010. The publication contains an analysis of this dispute and a discussion on the Russian policy of economic blackmail. The dispute also reminded us of the problem of security of supply of natural gas to the European Union. The article therefore contains an overview of the energy situation in the EU and the process of working out a compromise formula for the resolution on security of supply of gas.

The author of the paper submits that EU foreign policy disputes can be attributed to the fact that Central and Eastern Europe was admitted into the European Union as a less developed part of Europe. As a result, particularly the Franco-German axis intended to run EU foreign policy in accordance with the rule “the West knows best”. This approach is based on the assumption that the new EU member states should be socialized into Western, superior values. EU foreign-policy problems were created mostly by the Franco-German axis when these two countries decided to support a multi-polar world trying to counter American dominance and forging close ties with the Russian Federation. This approach to EU foreign policy was not acceptable to the new member states for political, economic, military and historical reasons. In the context of the current economic and financial crisis, the new member states’ foreign-policy choices have been vindicated as it turned out that the European Union cannot distance itself from the United States due to its economic weakness and the organization was not able to change Russia by way of the policy of “Wandel durch Annäherung”.