(Reuters) -&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;plans to relaunch&nbsp;the multi-sport&nbsp;Friendship&nbsp;Games&nbsp;next&nbsp;year,&nbsp;40&nbsp;years&nbsp;after&nbsp;its first edition,&nbsp;Sports&nbsp;Minister&nbsp;Oleg Matytsin has told President Vladimir Putin.
Matytsin said the event would be held&nbsp;after&nbsp;the Paris Olympics, which will run from July 26-Aug. 11 next&nbsp;year.
"We propose to intensify the practice of holding competitions in an open format with the invitation of partner countries," The Kremlin's official website reported Matytsin as saying.
"We continue to fulfil your (Putin's) instruction to organise the World&nbsp;Friendship&nbsp;Games&nbsp;in the autumn of 2024.
"We consider it necessary to use the resources of both&nbsp;Russian and international public and state organisations to the maximum for the successful holding of the&nbsp;Games, which should be held on a regular basis in the future."
Athletes from&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;and its ally Belarus have been largely frozen out of international competition by federations in the wake of the&nbsp;Russian invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a "special military operation".
Some Olympic&nbsp;sports&nbsp;such as archery, canoeing, cycling, fencing, judo, modern pentathlon, table tennis, taekwondo and triathlon have readmitted athletes from the two countries but athletics has not.
The International Olympic Committee has recommended that&nbsp;Russian and Belarusian athletes be allowed to return to international competition as neutrals though it has yet to take a final decision on their participation at the Paris&nbsp;Games.
FRIENDLY TIES
Last&nbsp;year,&nbsp;Russia&nbsp;held a competition called the Solidarity&nbsp;Games&nbsp;with the aim of "strengthening of international friendly ties between states".
The&nbsp;Friendship&nbsp;Games&nbsp;were first organised in 1984 in the Soviet Union and eight other socialist states which boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Around 50 countries took part with the Soviets dominating with 126 golds followed by East Germany with 50.
In 1986, Ted Turner, the billionaire founder of cable news channel CNN, created the Goodwill&nbsp;Games&nbsp;in response to the political troubles surrounding the Olympics of the 1980s.
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 led the United States and other Western countries to boycott the 1980 Summer&nbsp;Games&nbsp;in Moscow.
Four&nbsp;years later, the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc countries, except Romania, boycotted the Los Angeles&nbsp;Games.
The first edition of the Goodwill&nbsp;Games&nbsp;was staged in Moscow in 1986 and the last in Brisbane in 2001. The event was eventually cancelled due to poor television ratings.
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(Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)

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Russia to launch Friendship Games after 40-year gap - sports minister