diff --git a/dev-python/botocore/botocore-1.8.6.ebuild b/dev-python/botocore/botocore-1.8.6.ebuild
index 8ec458cb06799..08b1d49616cb4 100644
--- a/dev-python/botocore/botocore-1.8.6.ebuild
+++ b/dev-python/botocore/botocore-1.8.6.ebuild
@@ -38,12 +38,15 @@ DEPEND="
 "
 RDEPEND="${CDEPEND}"
 
+PATCHES=( "${FILESDIR}/1.8.6-tests-pass-all-env-vars-to-cmd-runner.patch" )
+
 python_compile_all() {
 	use doc && emake -C docs html
 }
 
 python_test() {
-	nosetests -v tests/unit tests/functional || die "tests failed under ${EPYTHON}"
+	PYTHONPATH="${BUILD_DIR}/lib" nosetests -v tests/unit || die "unit tests failed under ${EPYTHON}"
+	PYTHONPATH="${BUILD_DIR}/lib" nosetests -v tests/functional || die "functional tests failed under ${EPYTHON}"
 }
 
 python_install_all() {
diff --git a/dev-python/botocore/files/1.8.6-tests-pass-all-env-vars-to-cmd-runner.patch b/dev-python/botocore/files/1.8.6-tests-pass-all-env-vars-to-cmd-runner.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..49fd3adef376c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dev-python/botocore/files/1.8.6-tests-pass-all-env-vars-to-cmd-runner.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+From 78077a5e80c9ad5f909037a48100481ddfedc6b2 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
+From: Andrey Utkin <andrey_utkin@gentoo.org>
+Date: Wed, 13 Dec 2017 01:50:03 +0000
+Subject: [PATCH] tests: pass all env vars to cmd-runner
+
+cmd-runner was started with no environment variables inherited.
+This breaks tests when run with custom PYTHONPATH, which is useful for
+testing botocore while not being installed in standard locations.
+
+One case when this is important is performing tests before installing
+the package in Gentoo Linux.
+
+Link: https://bugs.gentoo.org/640726
+---
+ tests/__init__.py | 1 +
+ 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)
+
+diff --git a/tests/__init__.py b/tests/__init__.py
+index 74a2e4de..fa0b819b 100644
+--- a/tests/__init__.py
++++ b/tests/__init__.py
+@@ -145,6 +145,7 @@ class BaseClientDriverTest(unittest.TestCase):
+         if self.INJECT_DUMMY_CREDS:
+             env = {'AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID': 'foo',
+                    'AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY': 'bar'}
++        env.update(os.environ)
+         self.driver.start(env=env)
+ 
+     def cmd(self, *args):
+-- 
+2.15.1
+