NOVOGORSK /Moscow Region/, March 10. /TASS/. Morinari Watanabe, a candidate running in the presidential election for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) presidential post and the head of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), intends to exert every possible effort to see the return Russian athletes back to the international arena. Watanabe, who is currently paying a visit to Russia, noted that he wanted to imply all of his efforts to "make the dreams of every athlete come true." Seven candidates vie for the IOC presidency at the organization’s 144th session in Greece between March 18 and 21. The candidates are Sebastian Coe (Great Britain), Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr (Spain), Morinari Watanabe (Japan), Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe), David Lappartient (France), Johan Eliasch (Great Britain) and Prince Faisal bin Hussein (Jordan). Late last month, the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Executive Board has accepted a resignation letter from IOC President Bach. Olympic gold medalist Bach, 71, was elected president of the IOC in 2013 at the 125th IOC session in Buenos Aires for a term of eight years. Bach won his Olympic gold in the team foil competition at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. After serving his initial eight-year term as IOC president, he ran for another four-year term in the 2021 elections, where he was the sole candidate and was ultimately re-elected. IOC sanctions against Russia, Belarus On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason. Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments. In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.