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Peace and Sports int'l festival opens in Sochi

Three-day forum will be held under the chairmanship of Prince Albert II of Monaco and with participation of over 700 delegates from more than 100 countries

SOCHI, October 31 (Itar-Tass) — The 6th international Peace and Sports festival opens here on Wednesday. The three-day forum will be held under the chairmanship of Prince Albert II of Monaco and with participation of over 700 delegates from more than 100 countries. Among political leaders attending the forum, there will be HRH Prince Faisal Bin Al-Hussein of Jordan, members of the International Olympic Committee, international federations and National Olympic Committees, non-governmental organizations and business communities, as well as famous sportsmen, an official at the Sochi-2014 organizing committee told Itar-Tass.

Participants in the forum will share ideas of how significant a contribution sports may introduce to the peace process and to peacemaking projects around the world.

The forum will open with a seminar on the theme of "Sports as Factor in Social Development in Russia". A report is to be made by Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko. As the host coutnry of the forthcoming 2014 Winter Olympic Games, Russia gained the rights to be the first to present its vision of the role of sports in the country's social life.

"Peace and Sports is an international non-political organization which was founded under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco in 2007. Joel Bouzou, Olympic Winner and World Champion in Modern Pentathlon, is the president and founder of the forum.

From year to year, the forum becomes moreand more widely representative: over 530 delegates from 95 countries took part in the 5th international forum in 2011, as against 500 particpants from over 80 countries in 2010.

The forum in Sochi will continue until November 2.