Disrupting a new covert influence campaign from Russia

OpenAI banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts originating in Russia that were used to promote the International Burke Institute (IBI), a self-described 'expert community' based in Israel. The operators prompted in Russian to generate social media comments in English, instructing ChatGPT to obscure linguistic clues of their Russian origin. They accessed the platform via VPNs, as access from Russia is restricted. The generated content primarily promoted IBI articles on platforms including Substack, Telegram, X, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

The IBI website, registered in February 2025, claimed to be based in Israel but featured extensive copied and misattributed academic work. Many articles appeared to be machine-translated from Slavic languages, with unnatural phrasing such as 'the Svetofor coalition'—a literal translation of the Russian word for 'traffic light'—used to describe Germany’s political coalition. The site also promoted a 'sovereignty index' praising Russia while criticizing Western countries, including the EU, Germany, and the U.S.

The operation’s core activity involved generating social media posts to drive traffic to the IBI website, with some posts appearing under the IBI name and logo, while others were attributed to inauthentic everyday users. Operators also created replies to real Substack users, often including requests to follow the IBI channel. One operator generated German-language posts on a Telegram channel called 'Lahme Ente' ('lame duck'), routinely criticizing Ukraine, the EU, and the German government while advocating for improved relations with Russia.

The IBI website presented itself as an 'expert community' with a claimed address in Israel and featured profiles of prominent academics, though most content was copied from other sources. A review of 36 articles linked to experts found 34 were copied, often with incorrect attributions. For example, an article on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor was copied from Cambridge University Press but attributed to a professor at the University of Nottingham. The operation’s immediate impact was limited, with low engagement on social media and modest subscriber counts on IBI’s official accounts.