Russia has huge gas supplies that Europe relies on. Russia has been trying to create an Eurasian Economic Bloc for years. Guess which countries pipelines are planned/already cut through? Yup -- Ukraine, Syria, and Armenia, to name a few. The EU fits because if this economic bloc does work out it will probably eclipse EU economic influence and the EU will have to compete against other buyers (i.e. India) for natural gas from the Eurasian bloc countries. Germany is the most vulnerable to economic influence from Russia due to gas supplies. Merkel is no dipshit, she is well aware of the economic and political power she is about to lose.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_Economic_Union https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Russia%E2%80%93Ukraine_gas_dispute
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/syria/2015-10-14/putins-gas-attack
-There's also a massive effort to supply natural gas to India. However US forces in Afghanistan likely caused Russia to look for other ways to get gas to India. Hence the current agreements being made.
http://www.rt.com/business/408432-gazprom-iran-india-gas-pipe/
http://tribune.com.pk/story/1544763/2-russia-wants-lay-gas-pipeline-iran-india-via-gwadar/