MIT Accepted Millions From Russian Foundation Later Deemed Security Risk by U.S.
“the public should be aware of such partnerships that concern national security”
Democrats have spent the last four years screaming that Russia is a direct threat to the United States. Are we still doing that or no?
The College Fix reports:
MIT accepted over $51 million from Russian foundation later deemed security risk by U.S. government
Since 2014, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has accepted over $51 million in monetary gifts from the Skolkovo Foundation, a relationship the Department of Education recently deemed a national security risk.
In a recent report, the Education Department criticized the partnership between MIT and the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, saying it amounted to “conducting sensitive research in conjunction with an adversarial government.”
“While the Department does not police subject matter, the public should be aware of such partnerships that concern national security,” the report reads.
According to databases of foreign contributions to American institutions of higher education maintained by the Education Department, the Skolkovo Foundation made five monetary gifts to MIT totaling $51.5 million between March 2014 and February 2016. In addition, MIT also accepted a $30 million “contract” from an unnamed Russian source in December 2019.
A spokesperson for MIT declined numerous requests by The College Fix to comment for this story.
On October 26, 2011, MIT and the Skolkovo Foundation created the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (nicknamed “Skoltech”), a joint venture with the goal of “empowering Russia’s technology sector and attracting foreign investment.”
Topics of research at Skoltech included oil and gas extraction, biomedical research, communication infrastructure, energy research, manufacturing, and space technology. The first graduates received their diplomas in June 2015.
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Comments
I’m no cheerleader for MIT’s fund-raising practices (c.f., Jeffrey Epstein), but this sounds like a nothingburger to me. It’s like discovering that you’re a racist because something you did as a kid that wasn’t racist then is considered racist now.
MIT has been taking this money since either 2011 or 2014 (the article is confusing) from an organization that was NOT flagged by the federal government. The government — not a university — is in the business of deciding who the enamy is, and if it took the government until now to flag them, how can you fault the university for what they did nine years ago?