Meet Jenya Yakut – Moscow’s celebrity homeless blogger

Homelessness is rampant in Russia, and the nation’s capital is no exception. But one homeless man’s inventiveness makes him stand out in the crowd – his online video blog focuses on the life of Russia’s homeless, and provides tips for them as well.

“This is my first YouTube video… I’m very nervous,” Jenya Yakut tells his viewers as he sits by a pond in the heart of the Russian capital. “I’ll be talking about my life in Moscow; where and how to have fun for free; how to eat for free; where to sleep, to go, and what to see.”

Yakut’s blog has already made him an online sensation, as over 38,000 subscribers can tell you.

And the city’s residents have been showing some genuine curiosity with regard to questions they would never have bothered to ask before, such as “how do things work with women.” Jenya answers: “Same as for married men – nowhere to take them.”

This admirable attempt to live a full life even when life gives you lemons started quite accidentally for Yakut. About a year-and-a-half ago, when he had gone into a railway station to warm up, Yakut saw a program about bloggers and how they make money.

“So, I had a little idea,” he told RT. “I had been thinking about it for a long time – and a month ago met Andrey, while begging for money. But instead of giving me money, he treated me to a burger. He grabbed a bite and got talking.”

The 24-year-old soon became the homeless blogger’s personal interviewer and cameraman.

What is truly inspiring about this story is that Jenya has already gotten numerous offers from TV companies to start his own reality show. “Cashing in a bit would be nice,” he says. “I’d like a home to fix up my health… the basics. And the second goal is to show people that there is not just glamor, but another side of life in the big city.”

Viewers have begun sending Yakut money, and now, “the sky’s the limit,” he says with a renewed zest for life.