OpenAI Bans Russian ChatGPT Accounts in Pro-Kremlin Influence Operation

OpenAI announced on August 25, 2026, that it had banned a cluster of ChatGPT accounts originating in Russia, which were used to support a covert influence operation promoting a fictitious think tank and spreading narratives favorable to the Kremlin. The operators used virtual private networks to bypass OpenAI's access restrictions from Russia and employed the AI tool to generate social media content in multiple languages, primarily English, while explicitly instructing the model to conceal any linguistic clues that might reveal their Russian origins.