Vitaly and The Real-Life Consequences of Chasing Online Infamy

A look at how prank spectacle culture went astray

2025-04-25T10:15:05.118Z

On April 3, 2025, the quest to perpetuate online prominence came with real-life consequences for Vitali Aleksandrovich Zdorovetskiy, the infamous “nuisance streamer” better known as Vitaly.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock or have sworn off social media, you likely saw the famous Russian vlogger performing his harassment antics through a livestream on unwitting locals in Bonifacio Global City. Look it up if you haven’t seen it. I bet you’d be outraged, too.

You’ve also likely seen Vitaly get arrested because of these antics, and you may have also seen him hauled out in handcuffs, dressed in an orange Bureau of Immigration (BI) detainee shirt last April 7 after they caught up with him in a hotel in Pasay City. The Secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government Jonvic Remulla listed down charges against him as he stood for the cameras. They include unjust vexation, alarm and scandal, and attempted theft.

Despite the restraints and Remulla’s litany about his crimes, Vitaly carried on with his usual smug smile and antics, flashing fingers shaped to an “L” and stealing a BI operative’s cap as the media ate up the spectacle.

The BI spokesperson noted this to the press partly in Filipino: Vitaly showed no sign of remorse. It could be that he was merely putting on a brave face or it could be that he was being real: unbothered by his situation because at the end of the day, it got what he needed—more attention.

This is the current atmosphere of rage sell and drama sell content that permeates our culture of spectacle. It’s a template that was pioneered by Vitaly’s professional troll predecessors like Johnny Somali and Jack Doherty. It isn’t even on the fringes or the dark web of online life anymore. It’s easily accessible, mostly via Kick, or what vloggers call the Wild West of streaming. It’s where all the “bad boys” end up after their antics get them booted off of platforms like YouTube or Twitch.

The gratification we get from watching such content is similar to what essayist Susan Sontag wrote about in “Regarding the Pain of Others” (2003). She hit the nail on the head about what we feel when we see images that provoke extreme emotions.

“There is the satisfaction of being able to look at the image without flinching. There is the pleasure of flinching.”

While she was mainly concerned about photojournalism from conflict and wars, the shock and delight of watching someone like Vitaly or Somali act the fool for views is the logical evolution of our media saturated landscape; the normalization of rage-bait drama.

“There was also the repertoire of hard-to-look-at cruelties from classical antiquity…No moral charge attaches to the representation of these cruelties. Just the provocation: can you look at this?”

We can and we do. Because how dare he?

So, yeah. This was Vitaly’s plan all along, his way of showing off how much he supposedly “understands” online culture (as he claimed in one of his videos.) Make a scene. Get arrested. Rake in the payday from the views of the controversial stream. Same modus and result like his previous stunts, but we’ll get to those later.

Big Profits From Big Drama

For those who think streaming is still a do-nothing slacker’s job, think again. Someone as famous as Vitaly rakes in thousands of dollars from his followers. He has around 10 million of those on YouTube alone. For the record that’s more than the population of the UAE or almost twice the population of Denmark.

Now you can begin to understand the scope of the profit in relation to the level of nuisance stream. And the why. Millions getting a dopamine hit from the pleasure of flinching or not flinching.

The prank as culture of spectacle is far from a new one. Simply look to “Jackass” and its band of misfits as pioneers in this field. Stunt men and skaters Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Ryan Dunn, and Steve-O played mischief as spectacle template for Millennials and Gen Xers during the early 2000s.

Except that they had mainstream cable network backing, which meant strict rules and waivers and nondisclosure agreements that all the harm and the damage would be directed inward, at themselves and each other. These include sticking fireworks up their asses and around their penises, provoking alligators to eat them, cajoling lions to chase them in the Savannah.

Their mission to expose themselves to as much pain and humiliation as possible on camera birthed an amazing franchise that lasted three seasons on MTV until 2001, with spin-offs like “Wildboyz” and “Viva La Bam,” producing five major studio movies, two video games, and several boxed DVD sets.

To draw a direct line from the inward defacing culture of Jackass fame to the outward rage bait of Vitaly wouldn’t be out of place. Spectacle provokes and invites. It tests borders. And on social media where regulations tend to be far more lax, where success is measured by the amount of engagement one gets (whether positive or negative,) and where one gets rewards commensurate to their “success,” what we get are people now trying to outdo the boys of Jackass by being actual jackasses to the general public.

Modern Day Makapili Enablers

As lucrative as Vitaly’s enterprise may be, there is a glitch in it and it might already be in progress.

Recent updates from the local government units handling his case have been insistent that the Russian will not simply be deported—since they’ve seen his previous antics in Croatia and Egypt—but rather be held in detention to prep him for criminal proceedings. They will also process him for what Remulla called “tactical interrogation” to scope out his local gofers and filming assistants.

Some have called the man and the woman the modern day makapili: traitors to race and country for profit. It’s hard to argue against this. The two have been identified by Redditors and other forum sleuths as Christopher P. Dantes aka Slykane7 on FB (also a streamer on Kick) and possibly Dantes’s wife Anne.

Another accomplice and enabler is Vitaly’s own mother, Elena Vulitsky. She often participates in the “good” side of her son’s stream; usually, when they give away donations to individuals or organizations. Though many of the streams on Kick are initially tagged with superlatives, as in “Vitaly and Mom Visit the Most Dangerous Hood in Manila – Fuck Around and Find Out.”

Perhaps we may yet see all these individuals presented the same way Vitaly was to the media by the BI or the National Bureau of Investigation? Only time will tell.

But since Vitaly has already gone through that, it could be that he is bound to have a first-hand experience of Filipino justice. And what a punishment that would be.

Given how sluggish the wheels of justice spin in our banana republic, the judicial process with all its loopholes, grey areas, and kinks might just favor those who wish to see him suffer. Cases take months—sometimes years—to get on to a court’s docket.

This is especially true if you are a foreign national. One remembers the case of an Iranian beauty queen trapped in immigration detention limbo because of procedural glitches that took weeks. And even then, she had to claim refugee status to get things resolved.

Before Vitaly was apprehended, the shocking nature of his antics drew a lot of flak from both locals and visiting foreigners.

Local mixed martial arts champion Louie Sangalang put up a hefty purse (US$5,000) for Vitaly to fight him in the cage. He needed to survive past one round, or five minutes. Vitaly was arrested before he could respond to Sangalang.

Meanwhile, American tourist and another vlogger, Eric Cabrera, tracked down Vitaly during the Russian’s livestream and confronted him for his pranks. Vitaly walked away from Cabrera before a fight could ensue, then he was arrested the next day.

In Defense of Vitaly

Regardless of how the general public feels, there are those who do defend Vitaly.

The crux of their argument is almost always that the Russian also does good, regularly making big donations.

For example, he went to Boracay in early April and gave money to the local indigenous community. Previously, he’s even gone on the hunt for sexual and child predators. The Russian has livestreamed multiple vigilante operations on Kick, including baiting and trapping alleged pedophiles and sex predators.

Now, does giving away philanthropy money and going vigilante to attempt to catch sex predators justify the spectacle of harassment and nuisance attention streamers do for their views and paycheck?

“No” is the quick and most ethical answer.

Easy enough. Two good acts don’t absolve a bad act, especially since it’s intentional and premeditated. Calling the fire brigade in a fit of guilt after you’ve lit the match on a house isn’t excusable or forgivable, especially since you wanted to burn it down, brought the gas and the match.

The motive remains. The damage of the act remains. There is premeditation and much like anything else, intention matters. Same with the endgame. Objective matters, spelling the difference between necromancy (which includes murder with corpse desecration) and homicide (simply a cessation of life.)

Intent to Troll

As VitalyzdTv (his username on Youtube,) the Russian—who immigrated to the US from Ukraine when he was still 14—has a pretty documented history of harmful, escalating pranks and real-life troll behavior for views.

In May 2012, he released "Miami Zombie Attack Prank!" where he donned a zombie costume and accosted people in the poorest neighborhoods of Miami to scare them. He mostly chased down Black people.

In Croatia in 2015, he tricked a former Croatian prime minister by jumping into his car, almost getting shot by a bodyguard.

And in January 2020, he climbed the Pyramids of Giza and spent five days in an Egyptian jail.

The intent is clear. There was premeditation.

Consequences IRL

Currently, Vitaly’s being held under BI custody but will likely be housed as an inmate at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig, where he previously livestreamed.

Bottom line for the Russian? If all the delays and then the sentencing for criminal charges play out, he’ll face many years in prison. But most of all, the consequences will impart the lesson we all want to Vitaly and his nuisance brood to learn: offensive and harassing pranks at the expense of bystanders have consequences.

If the Philippines succeeds, then we’ll have done what either Egyptian or Miami authorities have never been able to do. We’ll see Vitaly behind bars for many, many years, without the ability to record or livestream.

Perhaps, he might live in relative luxury as a VIP prisoner like Romeo Jalosjos or Peter Co, with chef-catered meals and a jacuzzi? He might become the mascot of one of these powerful prison lords and continue to livestream life, albeit on the inside. And Vitaly may have the last laugh there.

Or perhaps some inmate rogue, seized with nationalistic fervor, might enact his own revenge “On the Job”-style upon the poor Russian vlogger while he awaits trial? There are many Tatang Mario types in the big house of Camp Bagong Diwa, after all, if the Erik Matti series and movie are anything to go by.”

And as for us, well, some of us will be watching. Sontag was right after all. And this applies to Vitaly’s story, too. We are voyeurs, whether or not we want to be.

Vitaly and The Real-Life Consequences of Chasing Online Infamy

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