CHINA REMAINS RUSSIA'S BACKER, DESPITE IT BOGGING DOWN IN UKRAINE

Although Russia predictably denied culpability for bringing the private aircraft down, the Chinese government was even more circumspect

On 23 August, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Russia’s mercenary leader,apparently killed in a plane crash near Moscow. This was 2 months to the day after Prigozhin mounted a quashicoup against Tsar Vladamir Putin, understanding how this authoritarian leader was not going to allow a challenge to his reign to go unanswered.

Although Russia predictably denied culpability for bringing the private aircraft down, the Chinese government was even more circumspect. In a regular Foreign Ministry press conference the following day, spokesman Wang Wenbin simply stated, “We noted relevant reports. When Prigozhin’s rebellion occurred, Beijing issued only a terse two-line statement, describing it as “Russia’s internal affair” but assuring Moscow of China’s support to “maintain its stability and achieve development and prosperity”.

This nasty episode will have underscored China’s belief that it must never rely on private mercenaries and only on the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Political loyalty is paramount to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the party views Russia’s overreliance on mercenaries as “getting caught in one’s own cocoon”.

For two decades, Putin nurtured private mercenaries such as Wagner Group, providing a counterweight to make sure his military generals did not get too big for their boots, as well as lending a veneer of deniability to Russia when they operated overseas in places like Syria or Libya.