Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at a Kremlin summit in March. Alexei Mayshev / RIA Novosti / kremlin.ru
Moscow Times: Prigozhin's Insurrection Creates Headaches for Russia-China Alliance, Experts Say
Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellion against Moscow will have stoked alarm in China and could throw sand in the wheels of the “no-limits” strategic partnership between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, experts said on Sunday.
After a 24-hour armed insurrection in which Prigozhin’s Wagner mercenaries seized control of parts of the southern city of Rostov-on-Don and sent a convoy of troops hundreds of kilometers north towards Moscow, analysts said Beijing would see Putin’s failure to keep the mercenary boss in check as smacking of “incompetence.”
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Update #1: China, Russia Officials Meet in Beijing After Threat to Putin (Bloomberg)
Update #2: China's foreign minister meets Russian official in Beijing after rebellion (Financial Times)
WNU Editor: Beijing is definitely concerned. Having some elements of your armed forces, albeit a mercenary military force that is independent from the main military, going into rebellion mode is not a reassuring sign.
But Beijing is also seeing what I am seeing .... From what I have seen heard, and read, there was little if any public support in Russia for this rebellion, and more importantly, all media (main stream and social), political, military, and economic leaders immediately rallied around the Kremlin when the Wagners started their march towards Moscow. I am also now learning that 90% of the forces that make up the Wagner Group refused to participate in this rebellion. The fact that this rebellion also quickly ended with little loss of life is also a reassuring sign.
My prediction.
Russia, headed by Putin, is a vital political, economic, military, and strategic ally for Beijing. I can easily see Beijing doubling down on their support for Putin, at least that is the feedback that I am now getting from my friends and contacts in China.