‘I live the way most heterosexual men would like to live’: Man behind Dubai naked photoshoot defends actions

A married man at the centre of a nude photoshoot scandal in Dubai insists there was nothing “lewd” about the incident and it was just “a group of friends living a certain lifestyle”.

American-Ukrainian property tycoon Vitaliy Grechin, 41, remains in Dubai in an isolation centre after testing positive for Covid-19, after he and 12 Ukrainian women were arrested when their balcony shoot went viral.

Speaking to The Independent over a phone he had smuggled into the centre, Grechin said he is a “humble” man with a wife and 13-year-old son, and that the trip was no different to previous vacations he had taken with the same group in the Maldives, Turkey or Mexico. He was also a frequent visitor to Dubai.

He paid $6,000 for the tickets for the group of 23 models, himself, and Russian photographer Alexander Ten to travel to Dubai for a long weekend break.

“As a contrast, a deposit for a decent table in a club is $5,000. We’re not talking about huge money. We’re talking about a few friends inviting a few friends to come for five days in Dubai,” he said.

The day the photoshoot took place, the group was visiting Alexei Konsov, the founder of IT company Involta, who had been living in Dubai Marina for four months. They were using the building’s pool before the group returned to Kontsov’s apartment.

“Everybody’s cold and wet. We need to change because everybody’s wearing bathing suits and we can’t get in taxis,” Grechin said.

The group were wandering around naked inside the apartment because they are “liberal” and all “very close”, Grechin said.

“The culture of eastern European women is very different. They’re thin, beautiful, comfortable. And they understand the aesthetic beauty of something that is taken differently in this part of the world.

“So a couple of the girls said while we’re here, maybe we can quickly snap a picture with the beautiful view. So maybe 12 jumped out to get a picture on the balcony. It lasted 30 seconds.”

Nataliya Chuprina, 23, one of the models on the trip, said the photo was a “souvenir”.

“It was just for entertainment content, not public content. We wanted to take a photo as a keepsake for ourselves.”

Chuprina said all of the girls on the trip were involved in modelling, either professionally or amateur. 

Ten snapped the photos, which were then uploaded to a group WhatsApp chat. Those photos, as well as a video taken from a nearby balcony, quickly went viral. Grechin does not know who forwarded the pictures outside of the group WhatsApp chat.

Without acknowledging his own involvement in the incident, he questioned the women’s “level of intelligence” over the photo shoot. 

“These are people who are quite young and inexperienced, so they’re not idiots. They’re just, they get happy they forget where they are.”

The next day, after half the group had flown back to Kiev and the remainder were at a beach club, Kontsov received a call from his building’s management inquiring about the “friends he had over yesterday”.

Grechin and Kontsov were then taken to a police station, as police suspected the men were involved in prostitution.

Grechin was arrested that night, and the remaining 12 women were jailed the next day, upon checking out of their hotel and being fined $6000 for not following Covid-19 restrictions. 

Initially, the women, as well as Kontsov and Grechin, faced hefty fines and prison sentences.

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However, after completing its investigations, Dubai’s public prosecution deported the women on April 12 and handed them a five-year ban from Dubai. One woman remained after contracting Covid-19 but has since returned to Kiev. Kontsov was also later deported.

Since being back in Kiev, the women have posted Instagram stories out partying together and uploaded more half naked pictures from their time in Dubai.

In a statement, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the group received the “minimum possible punishment” due to their intervention and urged citizens to abide by the “rules of conduct in the foreign countries they are travelling to”.

Dubai Police refused to answer questions about the incident.

Grechin was due to be deported on April 22 but a pre-departure Covid test indicated he had tested positive for the virus and was taken to the Covid ward of Dubai’s Central Prison, before being moved to an isolation facility. He says his time in jail was “unpleasant”, but would not elaborate other than to say he had only received his luggage that day.

“I’ve been wearing the same T-shirt and shorts that I walked into Alex’s building in on the third of April.” 

He expects to be deported on May 2, after his isolation is complete, and vows to never return to Dubai, “whether I have a ban or not”.

He remained unrepentant over the incident, saying “we are a group of friends living a certain lifestyle”, which his wife and son “understand”.

“I bring positive energy and positive things into other people’s lives. I live the way 90 percent of heterosexual males on this planet would like to live, but they don’t. And I don’t want to apologise for it.”