OpenAI bans pro-Russia ChatGPT accounts used to spread pro-Kremlin content including an Israel-based think tank using real researchers’ names

OpenAI banned a “cluster” of ChatGPT accounts that it claims were part of a pro-Russia operation aimed at bashing Western countries and promoting a think tank with misattributed academic research.

The company said in a blog post this week that the banned ChatGPT users used VPNs to get around its restriction on Russian users and then used its tech to create social posts promoting the International Burke Institute, a think tank that describes itself as an “expert community” based in Israel, but which OpenAI says is the “core” of a Russian influence operation.

According to OpenAI, the think tank, the website of which is still online, claims to include among its contributors notable figures like American linguist and intellectual Noam Chomsky as well as American political scientist and author Francis Fukuyama.

Neither Fukuyama nor Chomsky responded immediately to requests for comment from Fortune .

One such author who was listed on the site didn’t know the website was using her name until Fortune reached out for comment.

Other listings include experts who passed away before the IBI was founded, such as Shlomo Avineri and Jiang Ping.

OpenAI said the website, which was registered in February 2025, also included a “sovereignty index” that favored Russia as well as dozens of articles with misattributed authors.

A scan by Fortune of the Burke Institute’s website on the Wayback Machine reveals that while it existed as of February last year, nothing was published on the page prior to October 2025.

The institute, in response to reporting by French outlet Le Monde on OpenAI’s claims, doubled down with a statement that said it rejected the idea it was not a legitimate think tank.

“The fact that third parties use or cite an IBI publication, the Institute’s name, or findings from the Sovereignty Index does not, in itself, constitute evidence of cooperation, coordination, funding, or a common underlying purpose.” The Burke Institute did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fortune sent to the email listed publicly on its website.

OpenAI said that according to its research, a handful of individuals in Israel represented the Burke Institute in interviews and at conferences.

Using real researchers’ names The AI company’s review of the Burke Institute’s articles found 34 of 36 were real academic articles misattributed to other authors.

A screenshot published by OpenAI showed a legitimate article on the Burke Institute’s website on migration governance that was taken from the Migration Policy Institute but misattributed to Kate Howell, a professor of food science at the University of Melbourne, with a headshot taken from the internet.