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MOSCOW, August 2. /TASS/. Celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the Summer Olympics in Moscow will be held three weeks in advance to the opening ceremony of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Honorary President of the Russian Olympic Committee Vitaly Smirnov told TASS on Friday.

At a March session of the Presidential Council on Physical Culture and Sports, Smirnov voiced a proposal to observe the 40th anniversary of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow.

The Russian president said then "It is a good idea," and issued instructions to the Russian Sports Ministry and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin on backing up the idea.

"The festivities will kick off three weeks before the [2020] Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo," Smirnov said.

Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), announced to TASS in April that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) voiced its plans to take part in the celebrations on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the 1980 Olympics in the Russian capital.

Smirnov added that invitations to the 1980 Olympics’ 40th anniversary celebrations would be extended to heads of all international sports federations, including to IAAF (the International Association of Athletics Federations) President Sebastian Coe.

"I believe that the invitations will be extended to all international sports federations, there must be no discrimination, moreover, Coe is the champion of the Olympics in Moscow," Smirnov said. "He will certainly get an invitation. Why not?"

At Moscow's 1980 Summer Olympics, Great Britain’s Sebastian Coe won gold in men’s 1,500-meter and silver in men’s 800-meter running. He is also the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics gold medalist in men’s 1,500-meter race.

About the 1980 Summer Olympics

The 1980 Summer Olympics was held in the Russian capital of Moscow between July 19 and August 3.

The Games, hosted by the then-Soviet Union, were marred by a boycott by a number of foreign countries, including the United States, in protest of Soviet military presence in Afghanistan.

Addressing the first ever World Olympians Forum (WOF) hosted by Moscow in 2015, IOC President Thomas Bach claimed the boycott could have been avoided if the IOC and the world leaders "could have listened to the Olympians at that time and the boycott could have never happened."

The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo are scheduled to be held between July 24 and August 9 and the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games will run between August 25 and September 6. The Olympic flame will be lit on March 11, 2020 in memory of the 2011 tragedy and the Olympic torch relay will start on March 26, 2020 from the Fukushima Prefecture.