After the Soviets rejected the Marshall Plan in 1947 they did come up with their own version, initially dubbed the 'Molotov Plan' after Soviet Foreign Affairs Minister Vyacheslav Molotov. By 1949 this resulted in a formal arrangement known as the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), intended to act somewhat like the Marshall Plan while being more of a closed-loop and preventing integration with free-market capitalism and other western democratic states. This way Stalin could keep both economic and ideological control over Eastern Europe throughout the rebuilding process of Europe.