The Russian Mikhail Chesnokov could have ended up with an assault rifle on the war front in Ukraine, crushed in the battle of Bakhmut like thousands of other soldiers his age, but he has just joined a scientific center in Madrid to search for a cure for pancreatic cancer. Chesnokov, a biochemist born in Moscow 35 years ago, escaped from Russia in September, following President Vladimir Putin's decision to decree a confusing mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russian civilians, forced to fight in the invasion of Ukraine. “I have never had a gun in my hand. I don't know how to fight, I'm very peaceful. I may look a little aggressive, but that's because I like the rock and the heavy metal", explains Chesnokov with a smile at his new workplace, the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), one of the best of the world in his field.
