China throws its support behind Russia, says Wagner rebellion is 'internal affair'

China connected Sunday described an aborted rebellion by a Russian mercenary force arsenic an "internal affair" and expressed enactment for the Kremlin's efforts to support nationalist stability.

"This is Russia's interior affair," said a Chinese overseas ministry's spokesperson successful a statement. "As Russia's affable neighbour and broad strategical spouse of coordination for the caller era, China supports Russia successful maintaining nationalist stableness and achieving improvement and prosperity."

Separately, China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang and Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu met Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Rudenko connected Sunday.

Both sides "highly praised the existent authorities of Russia-China relations," according to a statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry.

They besides talked astir "prospects for further strengthening overseas argumentation coordination and practice betwixt Moscow and Beijing astatine multilateral platforms," the Russian overseas ministry said, adding the 2 countries volition "work unneurotic to consistently strengthen" relations.

On Friday, Yevgeny Prigozhin, person of Russia's paramilitary enactment Wagner Group, accused Russia's defence ministry of deliberately bombing Wagner fighters and claimed that Moscow's justification for invading Ukraine was based connected lies.

His troops reportedly took power of the strategical Russian metropolis of Rostov-on-Don earlier advancing to wrong 200 kilometers from Moscow connected Saturday. But little than 24 hours later, Prigozhin abruptly announced his fighters would crook backmost and halt their beforehand toward the capital.

Shortly after, Belarus released a connection that Prigozhin accepted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's suggestion for the Wagner radical to halt its cognition successful Russia and instrumentality further steps to easiness tensions.

Russian authorities media reported that the Wagner leader will present determination to neighboring Belarus and transgression charges against him would beryllium dropped.

China's statement pledging to enactment Russia successful maintaining nationalist stableness suggests it is "not providing nonstop subject support" to Russia, according to Ian Bremmer, president and laminitis of global governmental hazard probe and consulting steadfast Eurasia Group.

"[China is] reasoning that they are not providing immoderate subject enactment for Russia, adjacent erstwhile Putin's backmost was up against the wall, erstwhile helium mightiness person gone down, erstwhile they didn't cognize what was going to happen," said Bremmer, pointing retired that determination was "almost nary sum successful the Chinese authorities media."

"They fundamentally said, this is simply a Russian interior matter, which by the way, is what the Americans were saying arsenic well, what NATO was saying arsenic well," Bremmer told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" connected Monday.

"China's going to bargain a batch of Russian commodities. They're going to supply to the Russians a batch of debased level chips and the remainder — but they're not providing nonstop subject support," said Bremmer.