Whether this is ridiculous is one thing, whether it's over the top is a different thing.
To me, it seems it is not necessarily over the top as Russia has a special relationship with China and will therefore go out of its way to get not involved in what it perceives should be considered a purely intra-Chinese problem. It is sort of a sign of respect for the wishes of a long old partner. I think this is hard to criticize and highly unlikely to be out of fear for "pissing off" China.
I would say though that it is ridiculous. This private opinion of mine is due to the fact that I think China is too unrelaxed about Taiwan's existence. IMHO they should just get over it and move on. We're talking about a little island compared with a mega-sized giant after all.