Putin takes hard line on Ukraine truce during Olympic Games

President Vladimir Putin lays flowers in Harbin on Friday at the Soviet martyrs’ monument, built to commemorate Red Army soldiers who died during the second World War. Photograph: Alexander Ryumin/Getty Images Russian president Vladimir Putin has rejected a call for a truce in the war in Ukraine during the Olympic Games, blaming the ban on Russian athletes competing under their flag. Speaking at the end of a two-day visit to China, he said that Chinese president Xi Jinping raised the issue of an Olympic truce during talks. On a visit to Paris last week Mr Xi endorsed French president Emmanuel…