Belarusian trash blogger Mellstroy: why is he so famous?

Gitanas Nauseda and Kylian Mbappe said hello to this Belarusian. Cases have been opened against him in Belarus and Russia, and memes with his participation are spreading not only on the Russian-language Internet but also in Western countries.

All this concerns 25-year-old Homiel resident Andrei Burym, better known by his nickname Mellstroy. Who is he, and why is he so popular? Euroradio tells the story of the trash streamer. 

Who is this Mellstroy?

Andrei Burym was born in Homiel in 1998. The future blogger could have done better in school: after 9th grade, he studied to become a car mechanic. It didn't last long: in 2017, he dropped out of school and started a YouTube channel.

At first, Burym recorded videos about the games Minecraft and Dota 2 but soon switched to trash streams. He offered girls undress in exchange for participation in broadcasts and "popularity."

A criminal case was then opened against him in Belarus for producing and distributing pornography, but it was soon dropped due to insufficient evidence.

Mellstroy gained popularity in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic when he began organising parties in the centre of Moscow, inviting famous models and bloggers in Russia. He showed his parties live. In addition, the blogger paid guests to attend streams and offered money for completing absurd tasks.

At one of these parties, Burym hit a girl's head on a table - for this, he was sentenced in Russia to six months of correctional labour and ordered to pay compensation to the victim.

A new wave of popularity came to him in the summer of 2023. Then he went to the streams of bloggers and asked them to perform tasks for large sums of money: for example, to shave their heads.
 

Where does Mellstroy get his money?

Burym has been promoting online casinos for a long time, for which even his fans criticize him.

As he himself said in his streams, he gets a percentage of the losses of users who followed the links posted in his streams. 

Why is he so popular?

Mellstroy has gained enormous popularity not only in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet.

There are many memes about Mellstroy on TikTok and Instagram in Polish and English. Foreigners' comments are often positive: many write that "this guy breaks down language barriers" and "respects" him.

Some memes are also about money - or the desire to get it. Burym promises authors of submitted videos $200 per video. Some wrote that the money supposedly arrived, but many never received payments.

At some point, Burym launched a PR campaign promising money to anyone who completed his task.

For example, he promised $2 million to anyone who could film the president of any country in the world saying "hello" to Burym. The request was fulfilled: the Lithuanian boy achieved his goal and recorded Gitanas Nauseda on video. However, the blogger did not fulfil his promise and stated that he could only spend up to 150 thousand dollars for such a video. More information is needed on whether the boy even got this money.

Besides Nausėda, the football player Kylian Mbappe greeted Mellstroy, and the famous American blogger MrBeats subscribed to his Instagram account. No one knows if Burym paid anything to the authors of these videos.

Andrei promised one billion Russian rubles (almost $12 million) for putting his nickname on the moon. In March this year, a man published proof that he could send a sign with the inscription Mellstroy to the Earth's satellite. In response, the blogger blocked the guy.

In a controversial move, Mellstroy set a record for the Russian-language Internet in March this year - his stream was viewed simultaneously by 720 thousand viewers. However, the event was marred by accusations of cheating, as the stream was hosted not on Twitch, but on a lesser-known and less transparent platform, sparking intrigue and debate.

Attitude to Mellstroy

Many in the public sphere, including prominent politicians, have branded Burym a cheater, fostering a sense of collective disapproval and scepticism.

For example, Latvian President Edgars Rynkevics called Mellstroy a fraud and urged people not to perform his tasks.

In addition, Burym needs help with the law. For example, he is wanted in Belarus for evading military service (he is also wanted on the territory of the Russian Federation). Recently, he insulted visitors to one of the hotels in Dubai, which forced him to leave the United Arab Emirates.