“Crash of Belarus”, headlines Gazeta Wyborcza. Starved of foreign funds in the wake of president Alexander Lukashenko’s violent crackdown on the opposition during the 2010 elections, which has intensified since the 11 April subway bombing in Minsk, the Eastern European country is on the verge of economic breakdown, the Warsaw daily reveals. “Belarusians are buying out foreign currency, sugar, flour and buckwheat”, with “panic on the market” fuelled by rumours of imminent devaluation of the national currency. And Lukashenko’s room for manoeuvre is limited, Gazeta notes, because both the West and Russia “have him cornered and have set tough conditions”. In exchange for financial help, it is said that Moscow wants shares in the “most attractive Belarusian companies” including gas pipelines, car and fertiliser plants. Notwithstanding, Russia is the last hope for the regime in Minsk. However, according to a former Russian minister for economy Yevgeny Yasin, “Moscow will only help Lukashenko until it finds someone to replace him”.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.