The author here squints hard to try and imagine 'cracks' in the China-Russia relations. But in the end, he can only amass two of the flimsiest pieces of evidence to prove that Russia is 'containing' China, which are: 1. Russia sells military hardware to Vietnam and 2. Russia co-operates with Vietnam in gas exploration. Both are explained by the fact that Russia is desperate for cash revenue, and is willing to bargain with anyone, even the cheapest hookers. If Russia really wanted to contain China, they wouldn't sell military hardware to China either because it neutralizes their hardware sales to Vietnam. The writer's argument completely disintegrates when his points are refuted like this.
All in all, this article reveals very little about Russia-China relations, but a lot about the desperate psychologies by two players:
1. The West is terrified by the Crimea incident and the possibility of a China-Russia axis. These kinds of half-baked, second-rate analyses only makes readers raise their eyebrows and scoff, killing the publication's credibility, so normally they don't dare to sink to such base standards. But with the pressure beating down on them, they lose their composure, and the result is a complete deterioration in editorial quality.
2. Vietnam is still the same desperate pawn, trying to court everyone with a smidgeon of power, like a renegade concubine, even when their clients are deep-seated enemies (Russia vs. US). The end result is that Vietnam's reputation gets flushed down the toilet, because no one can trust a wh0re state who curries favor with two different mafia bosses.