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It started with a simple approach at Accra Mall. A white man with eyewear would smile at a woman shopping alone, introduce himself as a Russian tourist, and ask for her number.
He is suspected of having used Meta glasses for the filming. Within hours, she would be at his luxury apartment.
What she didn’t know was that his glasses, fitted with hidden cameras, were recording everything, and that the footage would soon be sold to thousands of Telegram subscribers for five dollars a month.
By the time Vyacheslav Trahov reportedly left Ghana in mid-February 2026, he had left behind a trail of over 10 documented victims in the country alone, with evidence of similar operations across Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, and Tanzania.
The scandal has sparked international outrage, prompted Ghana’s government to pursue extradition through Interpol and Russian diplomatic channels, and raised urgent questions about how major platforms profit from non-consensual intimate imagery.
Trahov operated online under the alias ‘Yaytseslav.’
According to an analysis of his documented encounters, he would approach women in public spaces, primarily shopping malls, with a disarming directness.
‘Hi, you’re beautiful,’ he would say. ‘I’m from Russia. How old are you?’ Within minutes of small talk, he would extend an invitation: ‘Come with me to my place. Let’s talk and get to know each other.’
In one documented case, a woman cancelled her pre-ordered ride to follow him immediately after meeting on the street.
Trahov used glasses fitted with hidden cameras, advanced smart glasses that look like ordinary eyewear but contain embedded recording devices.
These types of glasses, which have become increasingly available on the consumer market, are designed to be indistinguishable from regular sunglasses while housing 12-megapixel cameras within the frames.
While many such devices include small LED indicators that are supposed to light up when recording, these lights are often invisible in bright daylight or dim lighting conditions.
More concerning, modification kits sold online can disable these indicators entirely while keeping the camera fully functional.
The glasses enabled Trahov to record everything, street approaches, conversations, and intimate moments, while maintaining the appearance of casual interaction.
His hands were free. There was no visible phone or camera to alert his victims. The technology had turned an everyday accessory into a weapon of exploitation.
The Pattern
Trahov’s target demographic was specific. He primarily approached women aged 30 to 40.
Trahov used the same script in every place, quick approaches, quick yeses, and quick recordings. He would film the entire encounter, from the initial street approach through intimate moments in his rented luxury apartments.
Then he would edit the footage into two versions: short, safe-for-work teaser clips that he posted on TikTok and YouTube, and full, uncensored videos that he sold through a private Telegram channel.
His TikTok account accumulated over 114,000 followers.
These followers served as a marketing funnel, directed to his Telegram channel, where full videos cost five dollars per month.
The Platforms
Telegram marketplace
While smart glasses manufacturers provided the tool, Telegram provided the marketplace.
The messaging platform, which surpassed one billion dollars in revenue in 2024, differs from other social media companies: it has little to no content moderation.
Private channels operate with virtually no oversight. End-to-end encryption prevents platform monitoring. There is no proactive scanning for non-consensual intimate content, no age verification, no consent verification.
Telegram provides easy infrastructure for paid subscription channels, takes an estimated thirty per cent of subscription fees, and asks no questions about whether the content being monetised was produced with consent.
The platform only acted after coordinated public pressure.
Checks by DUBAWA indicate that Telegram took down videos featuring only Ghanaian women after mass complaints flooded online.
A screenshot by one of the channels confirming the removal of the content involving Ghanaian women
By then, the content had been circulating for weeks, downloaded by thousands of subscribers, and permanently scattered across the internet.
Tiktok
TikTok’s role was different. The platform’s algorithm amplified Trahov’s content, helping him build a following of 114,000 people.
A screenshot of Yaytseslav’s TikTok page right after deleting content he created with African women
The ‘For You Page’ recommendations likely exposed his videos to women he would later target, creating a feedback loop where his online presence made real-world approaches more effective.
TikTok allowed the account to remain active for weeks after complaints began, permitting Trahov to change his username and set the account to private before finally banning it only after a coordinated mass reporting.
A screenshot of Yaytseslav TikTok’s account was private before it “disappeared.”
YouTube
YouTube, meanwhile, monetised summary videos through its AdSense programme, generating advertising revenue from content.
A screenshot of Yaytseslav YouTube page before it “disappeared”
The videos didn’t violate explicit content policies because they were edited for general audiences, but they served as marketing for the non-consensual material sold on Telegram.
YouTube took no holistic view of what the content was actually facilitating.
What’s striking about this multi-platform operation is the lack of coordination between companies. There was no information sharing between hardware manufacturers, Telegram, TikTok, and YouTube.
Each platform treated the case in isolation. There is no industry-wide blacklist for non-consensual intimate image offenders.
Each company waited for public outcry rather than proactively detecting the obvious pattern. And each company profited—through hardware sales, subscription fees, advertising revenue, or AI training data—from the exploitation.
The Government Response
The scandal broke in early February 2026 when videos began circulating on social media. Public outrage erupted across Ghana and spread to other African countries where victims were identified.
On February 12, blogger Clement Nana Asamoah of Gossips 24 TV revealed Trahov’s real name, connecting the online persona ‘Yaytseslav’ to a Russian national who had been operating across the continent for months.
By February 14, the Ghanaian government had mobilised a comprehensive response involving multiple ministries and law enforcement agencies.
The Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection issued a statement condemning the exploitation.
Full details of the Statement from the Gender Ministry
“The Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection has taken note of reports involving a foreign national who allegedly engaged in sexual activities with some Ghanaian women and recorded and circulated those acts without consent,” the statement reads. “Non-consensual recording and distribution of intimate images is a criminal offence and a clear violation of personal dignity and privacy.”
“The ministry confirmed that Trahov had fled Ghana but emphasised that this did not reduce the state’s commitment to accountability. ‘Preliminary information indicates that the individual may not currently be within the country’s jurisdiction,” the statement continued. “This, however, does not reduce the seriousness of the alleged conduct or the state’s responsibility to pursue accountability.”
The Gender Ministry revealed that the government had been working on these issues even before the scandal broke.
“It is important to state that, before these reports, the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection had already been working with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Innovations and its relevant agencies on measures to prevent and respond to image-based sexual abuse,” the statement noted.
Samuel Nartey George, Ghana’s Minister of Communications, Digital Technology and Innovations, was even more explicit about the government’s determination to bring Trahov to justice. Speaking to journalists on February 14, 2026, George laid out the legal framework and enforcement strategy.
“It is a crime to record a person without their consent and upload it on the internet,’ George stated firmly. ‘Even if you record and keep it on your phone, and the person finds it and reports, we will arrest you to face the law. In this case, the man not only recorded these encounters but also posted them online for financial gain. We will leave no stone unturned in ensuring he is held accountable.”
The minister revealed that his office had already begun building a comprehensive case. “My little team at Cyber Security is building a full docket,’ he explained. ‘Whether we have the gentleman or not, I intend for us to file a full prosecution. We will make a representation before the court, try him in absentia and get a judgment if he fails to show up.”
Sam George confirmed that the government had activated multiple channels for extradition. “That gentleman will be looked for. We will activate every resource at our disposal, working with INTERPOL,” he stated. “We will request the Russian authority.” The minister also disclosed that he had initiated discussions with the Russian ambassador regarding the gravity of the allegations.
On February 16, 2026, the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Ghana posted a statement on its official X (formerly Twitter) account saying: “The Embassy of the Russian Federation in the Republic of Ghana has taken note of the reports in the Ghanaian media on the alleged involvement of a supposedly Russian citizen engaged in sexual activities with some Ghanaian women and recorded those acts without consent.”
A screenshot of the Russian Embassy in Ghana’s statement captured on X
But there’s a fundamental challenge: Ghana does not have an extradition treaty with Russia. Neither do Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, or Tanzania.
NPP Member of Parliament for Okaikwei Central and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Patrick Boamah, publicly cast doubt on the government’s extradition plans.
He cautioned that Ghana does not have a bilateral extradition treaty with Russia, which complicates the legal pathway significantly, and stressed that extradition requests without such agreements rely entirely on diplomatic negotiations, making the outcome deeply uncertain.
The cry of the victims
Two women who reportedly appeared in videos linked to the scandal spoke to a Ghanaian blogger in Twi, their accounts later translated into English. Both women, whose identities we have chosen not to disclose for their protection, described a pattern of heavily edited footage designed to misrepresent what actually occurred.
The first woman explained that the video circulating online had been manipulated to make her appear “easily accessible.”
“The video circulated has been edited and made it look like we were easily accessible,” she said. “I highly believe the white man hasn’t posted every part of the conversation we had. It has been skewed to look like I was ‘cheap.’ There were some shots I noticed that are missing from the circulated videos I am seeing.”
The second woman, a real estate agent, categorically denied any intimate involvement. She described meeting the man at Accra Mall while on her way to show an apartment to clients.
“I can swear on my life I never had any intimate relations with the man,” she stated. “He met me at the Accra Mall, and I was on my way to an apartment to show some clients. I am a real estate agent. He approached me while searching for an apartment to rent. I opened up to the opportunity because I thought I had met a potential client. The videos circulating have been heavily edited—they don’t portray the full picture.”
She explained that she had even informed her supervisor about the potential client before accompanying him to view the property. Once there, the man made advances, which she firmly rejected, telling him she was in a relationship. He then offered her a meal, which she declined, before presenting her with 200 cedis, approximately 20 US dollars, which she also refused.
“I never had sexual relations with him,” she insisted. “When I left the apartment, I called my boss and informed her, who laughed about the negative attitude of foreigners who come into the country. Even in all our conversations, I didn’t know he was recording.”
The consequences, she said, have been devastating. “It’s affected me, my family, and my husband is threatening a divorce. I have tried searching for these videos that portray me having sex with this man, but I haven’t come across any. I am very disturbed.”
Disinformation in the mix
The moment Yaytseslav went viral, Telegram groups across Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria transformed into distribution hubs, but with a dangerous twist. The man’s face is not revealed in any of the circulating videos.
Because the perpetrator’s face is never shown, any video featuring a white man and an African woman, regardless of origin, context, or consent, has been weaponised and recirculated as if it belongs to this case.
How the misattribution works
Trahov’s videos were shot entirely from his own first-person point of view; the camera is his eyes, meaning he never appears in frame.
This has created a template that bad actors are exploiting ruthlessly. Unrelated intimate videos involving white men and African women, some dating back years and having nothing to do with this scandal, are being stripped of their original context, repackaged with captions linking them to “the Russian,” and flooded into Telegram groups and WhatsApp chats as though they are new evidence.
Kenya’s reaction
Kenya’s Ministry of Gender, Culture and Children Services launched a multi-agency probe into the alleged abuse, with Cabinet Secretary Hannah Wendot Cheptumo strongly condemning the circulation of intimate footage.
“The Ministry of Gender, Culture and Children Services strongly condemns the disturbing incident in which a foreign national is alleged to have secretly recorded and circulated intimate images of Kenyan women without their consent,” the official statement read.
The Cabinet Secretary confirmed that relevant investigative bodies had been directed to act swiftly and indicated that the case would require cross-border cooperation.
“The Government of Kenya is coordinating a whole-of-government response. Relevant security, investigative and prosecutorial agencies have been directed to pursue the matter with urgency, including collaboration with international authorities, given the cross-border nature of the case. Any individual found culpable will face the full force of Kenyan law under the Penal Code, the Computer Misuse and Cybercrimes Act, and all relevant statutes protecting women and children.”
The reckoning
Telegram chose to build a business model around minimal content moderation and maximum creator freedom, knowing that this would inevitably facilitate illegal activity.
The platform’s CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France in 2024 over allowing criminal activity on the platform and has not been allowed to leave the country.
Criminal cases involving the distribution of intimate content through paid Telegram channels in Russia have been increasing, with punishments reaching up to six years in prison.
Yet Telegram continues to operate with the same fundamental architecture: encrypted channels, no proactive monitoring, no consent verification, and a profit stream directly tied to whatever content creators choose to monetise.
TikTok and YouTube chose to amplify and monetise content that was transparently part of an exploitation scheme.
The question these companies will face in regulatory investigations, potential lawsuits, and public discourse is whether they can continue to profit from tools and platforms that enable exploitation while claiming no responsibility for it.
