Arrested Russian vlogger says he spread HIV scare to 'become a meme'

Nikita Chekhov, the Russian vlogger who was arrested by the Bureau of Immigration for threatening to spread HIV in the Philippines, explained that he only did the act to become a meme on social media.

In a report by 24 Oras, the 21-year-old content creator defended himself and asserted that he never intended to cause harm to anybody through his videos.

"It's my fourth time here in the Philippines this year... I do content for a living. But never in a negative in any kind of form to anybody. I've been making TikToks for Filipino audience too," he said.

According to Chekhov, he observed how some Filipinos think of foreigners in a "very [stereotypical] way."

"I was getting many comments like ‘stop spreading your viruses, foreigner,’ ‘passport bro,’ ‘lbh,’ ‘HIV alert.’ Just for being me. I was just doing some dances, silent TikToks, and still was getting that hate," he said.

"As a content creator, I analyzed and thought, 'how do I attract attention?' And that’s how I came up with ‘Spread HIV’ thing—I literally said out loud what Filipinos were saying to me. I was expecting it to become a meme," he continued.

Chekhov stressed that he is "absolutely clean and [does] not have HIV" as people from his home country "treat health very seriously."

"I do not have HIV and do not have intentions to spread it. I like [the] Philippines and come here a lot. I do not feel sorry for making that video. But now I understand more about standards and rules of living with Filipinos," he said.