When Vladimir Putin announced the partial mobilization of reservists last September, thousands of Russians decided to cross the border, mainly into Georgia and Kazakhstan, to escape being sent to the front in Ukraine. However, there were also people who chose other options. So it took Adam Kalinin, whose name is unknown, a week to decide that the best thing he could do was to move to the forest, the BBC reports.

• PHOTO VIDEO Desperate Russians cross the border with Georgia on foot to avoid partial mobilization

The IT professional was against the war from the start and was fined and served two weeks in prison for pasting a ‘No War’ poster on the wall of his home.

So when Putin announced that 300,000 men were calling to help turn the tide of a war he was losing, Kalinin didn’t want to risk being sent to the front lines to kill Ukrainians.

But unlike hundreds of thousands of others, he did not want to leave the country.

Three things kept him in Russia: friends, financial constraints, and the anxiety of giving up what he knew.

“Leaving would be a difficult step out of my comfort zone,” Kalinin, who is over 30, told the BBC. “It’s not exactly comfortable here either, but it would still be very difficult psychologically to leave.”

And so he took an unusual step: he said goodbye to his wife and went to the forest, where he lives in a tent for almost four months.

It uses an antenna tied to a tree for internet access and solar panels for power.

He has withstood temperatures down to -11 degrees Celsius and lives on food that his wife regularly brings.

Living without access to utilities, he says, is the best way he can think of to avoid being drafted. If the government

I cannot hand him a summons personally, he cannot be forced to go to war.

“If they cannot physically take me by the hand and take me to the police station, this is 99 percent effective protection against conscription or other harassment.”

Remote work in the forest

In some ways, Kalinin continues his life as before. He still works eight hours a day at the same job, although in the winter – with its limited light – he doesn’t have enough solar power to work a full day, so he makes up for his weekend hours. Its connection to the Internet via a long-range antenna attached to the hairpin is reliable enough that communication is not a problem.

Some of his colleagues are now in Kazakhstan. They left Russia after the start of mobilization.

He is also an avid outdoorsman, spending many of his past vacations camping in southern Russia with his wife. When he made the decision to permanently move to the desert, he already had a large part of the necessary equipment.

Kalinin’s life in the forest has earned him some popularity on the Internet, with 17,000 people following his Telegram updates almost every day. He posts videos and photos of his surroundings, his daily routine and how his camp is set up.