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. I've been making TikToks for Filipino audience too," he said. "I was getting many comments like ‘stop spreading your viruses, foreigner,’ ‘passport bro,’ ‘lbh,’ ‘HIV alert.’ Just for being me. And that’s how I came up with ‘Spread HIV’ thing—I literally said out loud what Filipinos were saying to me. "I do not have HIV and do not have intentions to spread it.

Source: Philippine Star January 24, 2026 09:59 UTC