Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post
My impression as a non-native learner is that отказаться (от) would suggest a stronger refusal (perhaps the offer was offensive in some way), while отклонить could mean that the offer was simply uninteresting to you. Is this correct, Helenej?
A tough question, you know. I didn’t find any answer to it in the web. This is just what I think.

Neither of these words is emotional. They both are neutral.

Отказываться (от) means

1. to refuse or reject smb’s offer like food, money, present, award, help, job, post, offer, role, trainer, deputy mandate, throne, smb’s sacrifice, chance, attempt.

2. to cancel smth planned before like trip, purchase, joining the Navy, relocating.

3. to disown smth. like thought, idea, intention, theory, view, signature.

Отклонить means to refuse smth, to give the negative response to smth. It is not applied to offerings or suggestions. We отклоняем application, claim, request, candidature, petition, bill, prosecutor’s protest, project.

With regard to what is declined the usage of this word seems to be more or less formal or official. I agree with Medved that the word combinations with отклонять sound formal with the slightest difference that отклонять is not formal itself. Maybe it sounds formal rather because of the realities to which it is applied. Nevertheless the difference doesn’t lie in the style only.
"Существуют опасения, что кабинет министров Украины будет вынужден отказаться от помощи Международного валютного фонда" is quite correct, thought it apparently can be said at some official level. As well as "Существуют опасения, что кабинет министров Украины будет вынужден отклонить предложение помощи Международным валютным фондом." I don’t know.

Btw, when we deal with a suggestion to do smth. we generally use отказаться сделать что-либо.

Предложение can be translated into English as offer, suggestion or proposal. So we need to choose the proper Russian version in accordance with the context.

In the following pairs the first sentence is correct and the second is incorrect.

1. Она отказалась от его помощи. Она отклонила его помощь.
2. Депутаты отклонили законопроект. Депутаты отказались от законопроекта.