Announcing the successful conclusion of negotiations on free trade and bunch of side effect agreements (such as visa liberalisation) after a three-and-a-half year marathon of negotiations with the European Union, and in fact becoming the champion among all six Eastern Partnership nations with the pace of its reforms, Armenia surprised many by performing a U-turn back to the Kremlin embrace, just in the eve of its independence 22nd anniversary. Many in the expert community (plus the diplomats off the record) doubted it was blind pressure from Russia that eventually bore fruits.