SOCHI: There will be no Barack Obama, no David Cameron and no Angela Merkel in the stadium when the Winter Olympics open in Sochi on Friday, but Vladimir Putin will at least be able to enjoy the company of China’s President, Xi Jinping, Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, and Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as well as the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon. Many in the West have been put off by the passing of a new law banning “gay propaganda”. The Guardian
