Over the past 24 hours, a man of Russian origin, only identified as Yaytseslav, has been trending on various social media platforms, and all for the wrong reasons.
This follows revelations that he has been secretly recording private encounters with multiple women across Africa and sharing the videos on his social media pages.
His actions only came to light recently after he released a series of videos featuring Ghanaian women, which led to further discoveries.
A deeper look revealed that Yaytseslav has reportedly shared videos of women from Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, and many other African countries.
In the videos, which have dominated conversations online, the Russian reprobate meets the women on the streets or in shopping malls, casually introduces himself, strikes up a light conversation and showers women with compliments before extending his hand and, in most cases, leading the women in a quick, awkward salsa.
“Hello, what’s your name? You look beautiful, I really like you. Can you please share your phone number?” he is heard saying while approaching the women in some of the clips.
Yaytseslav then shares the short clips on TikTok and YouTube for free, while the full versions, which probably feature X-rated activities, are available exclusively on his private Telegram channel, where he charges a monthly subscription of $5.
In most of the videos doing rounds online, unsuspecting women are seeing going about their day as the Russian man approaches them.
At first, they appear hesitant to talk but he quickly wins their trust before, somewhat magically, convincing them to follow him to his rented apartments, where they are now seen letting loose, getting cozy, interacting freely and even dancing coyly.
The most shocking part of these encounters is how easily the women appear to trust him, and how unreasonably fast they agree to a private, intimate date at his random rented homes, merely hours or days after meeting the man.
Appearing to only be doing it for sport, and not necessarily sexual attraction, Yaytseslav picks up just about any woman in the vicinity – a mother walking her kids home, a random pair of middle-aged women at the market, a hotel attendant, a mall guard, a supermarket merchandiser and random women idling around the market.
While the initial interactions with the women are published for all to see, the Russian man doesn’t share what happens in the apartments he takes the women to, although he does pointedly share that the women not only agreed for an intimate, indoors date but also appear to be comfortably within the confines of his bed.
In one rather daring instance, which explicitly demonstrates the Russian man’s unbridled notoriety, the freak attends Bishop Edward Mwai’s Roysambu mega church where he engages the preacher in a comical back and forth before convincing a worshipper to follow him back to his residence.
Shockingly, she obliges.
As outrage grew over his actions, many online users began speculating how he managed to record the women on the streets without their knowledge.
Some suggested that he must have used Ray-Ban Smart Glasses, also known as Meta Glasses, to film the unsuspecting women. This speculation arose after he was seen wearing glasses that resembled the Meta devices.
The Ray-Ban Meta glasses, developed with EssilorLuxottica’s Ray-Ban, let’s wearers take photos, stream content and talk to an AI assistant.
The newest models allow the wearer to capture 12MP photos, record 3K video, livestream to social media, and interact with Meta AI to identify objects or translate languages in real-time.
The fact that someone would casually wear Meta glasses, armed with recording capabilities, and expose so many women to ridicule and photographic exposure without their consent, caused massive uproar amongst Kenyans online, with many vehemently castigating the Russian man and others calling for his immediate arrest.
Journalist Ferdinand Omondi wrote: “Guys. A foreigner travels to African countries, engages in consensual sex with women, secretly records them, and then publishes the videos online. The sex was consensual. The recording and distribution were not. That is sexual exploitation.”
He added: “What’s troubling is that instead of focusing on the violation, many are laughing at the women. Adults make personal choices every day. Some wise, some risky. But no such personal decision cancels the right to privacy, and grants one permission to secretly record and expose someone.”
Omondi went on to point out that the fact that the women agreed to the sexual pursuits did not mean that they agreed to have their faces plastered to the world.
“We can debate ethics, morality and safety. But those debates must not erase the principle of consent. Consent to sex is not consent to filming. Consent to filming is not consent to publication,” he wrote.
Someone else said: “This isn’t travel content, it’s predatory behavior dressed up as vlogging. He is using African women as trophies for clicks. And instead of outrage, there’s excitement in weaponizing this saga to shame women. All the facts about how disgusting this man’s actions are get ignored, just so women can be dragged.”
Gladys Njoroge wrote, “This behavior is criminal. It is predatory. And anyone laughing at the victims is part of the problem. We cannot tolerate a world where exploitation is dismissed as “mischief” or “bad luck.” It is violence. It is abuse. And it must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
Social commentator Sholla Ard however wrote: “What disturbed me wasn’t just his behavior; it was how easily trust was given to a stranger… while he openly mocked it in Russian. Within minutes, phone numbers were shared. Within hours, some were in his house. No background check. No verification. No caution. Hard truth: skin color, nationality, charm, or perceived status does NOT equal safety. Predators rely on speed. They exploit politeness, curiosity, loneliness, and lowered guard.”
Dorothy Waigwe wrote, “Unfortunately, for black women the lure of white skin is an achievement, something to brag about. White automatically is attractive and smells of a better life, exotic so our sisters lower their guard and give in easily no second thought because everything becomes a fantasy. How do you meet a stranger and the next hour you are comfortable in their apartment?”
While the concept of the pick-up artist is nothing new, experts are sounding the alarm over the rise of so-called “manfluencers” who are covertly filming women to create misogynistic content online.
In this online sphere, women are often positioned “as a conquest, prize or reward,” Stephanie Wescott, a feminist academic, writer and speaker, and a lecturer in Education, Culture and Society at Australia’s Monash University, told CNN.
Smart glasses can play into the hands of these content creators as they offer a clear message about power, she warned. Namely, that men can “be watching, recording and therefore controlling women’s images in public spaces without their knowledge and therefore, that the public spaces belong to men.”
For Wescott, the phenomenon represents another example of the gendered abuse of technology – and a danger for women that is difficult to anticipate. “The danger is the loss of bodily autonomy without even being aware that it is happening,” she said.
In response to a request for comment by CNN, Meta said: “Our glasses have an LED light that activates whenever someone captures content, so it’s clear to others that the device is recording and features tamper detection technology to prevent people from covering that light.”
Meta said its terms of service clearly state its smart glasses should not be used to engage in harmful activities like “harassment, infringing privacy rights, or capturing sensitive information.”
