And this is a good progress on his part.
Russian pressure is explained by other reasons.
What is really happening is that oil and gas mafia around Chernomyrdin's Gasprom is basically opposing integration in the CIS, because their greed goes beyond any normal rational. What they prefer to do is to keep the situation as it is and suck as much as possible from the republics of Central Asia. But if somebody thinks that this money somehow benefit Russian people, one is mistaken. Russian people get nothing out of it. All the profits go into pockets of this oil and gas mafia and finish off in Western banks.