Council on Foreign Relations Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Reception== In an article for the ''[[Washington Post]]'', Richard Harwood described the membership of the CFR as "the nearest thing we have to a ruling establishment in the United States".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Harwood |first1=Richard |title=Ruling Class Journalists |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/1993/10/30/ruling-class-journalists/761e7bf8-025d-474e-81cb-92dcf271571e/ |newspaper=Washington Post |access-date=5 June 2023 |date=30 October 1993}}</ref> In 2019, CFR was criticized for accepting a donation from [[Len Blavatnik]], a Ukrainian-born billionaire with close links to [[Vladimir Putin]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Haldevang |first=Max de |date=2019-10-16 |title=Top US think tank criticized for taking $12 million from a Russia-tied oligarch |url=https://qz.com/1721240/council-of-foreign-relations-criticized-for-russia-tied-donation |access-date=2023-08-04 |website=Quartz |language=en}}</ref> It was reported to be under fire from its own members and dozens of international affairs experts over its acceptance of a $12 million gift to fund an internship program. Fifty-five international relations scholars and Russia experts wrote a letter to the organization's board and CFR's president, Richard N. Haass. <blockquote>"It is our considered view that Blavatnik uses his 'philanthropy'—funds obtained by and with the consent of the Kremlin, at the expense of the state budget and the Russian people—at leading western academic and cultural institutions to advance his access to political circles. We regard this as another step in the longstanding effort of Mr. Blavatnik—who ... has close ties to the Kremlin and its kleptocratic network—to launder his image in the West."<ref>{{Cite web|last=Friedman|first=Dan|title=A Soviet-born billionaire is buying influence at US institutions. Anti-corruption activists are worried.|url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/council-on-foreign-relations-leonard-blavatnik-russia/|access-date=2021-09-20|website=[[Mother Jones (magazine)|Mother Jones]]|archive-date=September 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920213116/https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/10/council-on-foreign-relations-leonard-blavatnik-russia/|url-status=live}}</ref></blockquote> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page