Body work: Russia's 'biohackers' push boundaries
Gripping a scalpel, Vladislav Zaitsev makes an incision in the fold of skin between his client's thumb and index finger and pushes in a little glass cylinder.
Alexei Rautkin, a 24-year-old programmer in a hoodie, is having a chip inserted in his hand so he can open the door to his office without swiping a card.
"It's something I decided in the past," he says. "Mainly because it's convenient but gleam kind of exclusivity, because practically no one else has this."
Rautkin and Zaitsev are among a growing number of Russians considering biohacking, a global movement whose followers seek to "upgrade" their bodies with experimental technology and DIY health fixes that began in Silicon Valley in the beginning of the last decade.
For some, the approach to life trend involves implanting technology under their skin.
For others -- mainly wealthy Russians -- the quest is to live longer, that they desire to do through intensive monitoring of their bodies, taking vast levels of supplements or extreme exercise.
Although it's unclear how many biohackers there are in Russia, the movement is spreading, with social media forums, conferences and businesses springing up to focus on their needs.
Zaitsev, a programmer with a ducktail haircut, taught himself to insert chips, helped by the fact he's a medical school dropout.
The 28-year-old caught national attention in 2015 by firmly taking the chip out of a Moscow metro pass, dissolving it in acetone and encasing it in silicone before inserting it into the back of his hand.
The disc, about how big is a British one penny coin, continues to be noticeable but currently defunct -- Zaitsev reprogrammed it with charge card details, only for the lender to close.
He also offers magnets on his fingertips, mainly for party tricks. He says the biohacking movement is approximately using technology to facilitate concrete tasks.
"In biohacking, I like things that give a genuine, confirmed effect, for instance investing in chips," he says.
Predicated on the contact between your close-knit community on social media, he estimates that about 1,000 Russians are chipped.
Most install work passes, he says, although some insert magnets or a compass implant that vibrates if they turn north. "I like the idea of expanding the capacities of our body."
All over the world, implanted microchips are being used to begin cars, start smartphones, computers and printers, monitor body temperature and store medical information or as business cards. Professional magicians even use them to improve their tricks.
Some chips have been approved for human use, but Zaitsev said he uses veterinary ones manufactured in Taiwan and ordered by mail for approximately 500 rubles ($8) each.
Although some have raised concerns over potential surveillance and hacking, the amount of chipped people continues to be really small in Russia, and unlike smartphones, the chips usually do not transmit the users' location.
In his studio flat, Zaitsev charges Rautkin 2,000 rubles ($32) for the operation to insert the chip that is slightly bigger when compared to a grain of rice.
He has chipped about 50 others, too, he says.
The "typical client is a geek", he adds. "Most are men aged 35 or younger."
Other biohackers have little time for chipping, however.
Entrepreneur Stanislav Skakun says that biohacking is about extending life, potentially for a large number of years, an idea referred to as transhumanism.
"I haven't yet found a chip that might be useful for prolonging life... I can't see any point by doing this yet," the 36-year-old said.
Instead, he regularly attends an exclusive clinic where nurses fill some 20 test tubes along with his blood for analysis.
It's just part of his exhaustive routine over the last five years, measuring hundreds of biochemical markers and taking handfuls of vitamins and supplements daily.
Although he declines to talk at length in what he takes, he says the supplements include iodine, Vitamin D, magnesium and prebiotics.
As well as genetic tests to recognize personal risk factors and compensate for them, he undergoes tests for inflammation, cholesterol, glucose, bone density, the stress hormone cortisol and the efficiency of his immune system.
Trim with piercing blue eyes, Skakun claims that "within the last five years, my biological age hasn't changed at all."
He hopes to live long enough to see scientific advances extend life massively.
"If we conquer cancer, Alzheimer's and coronary disease, we'll prevent practically all of the reasons we die," he said.
Such ideas are espoused by international proponents of transhumanism, such as for example controversial British gerontologist Aubrey de Grey, who believe humans can drastically extend their lifespan and only die from accidents or violence.
Currently, the oldest human on record, France's Jeanne Calment, died at the age of 122.
Some biohackers have jumped on breakthroughs in gene therapy, among the hottest regions of medical research.
Controversially, U.S. biohacker Josiah Zayner, who's a scientist, in 2017 livestreamed an experimental attempt to alter his own DNA using new gene editing technology called Crispr.
The tool, informally referred to as molecular "scissors", has been used to take care of genetic conditions, such as for example sickle cell disease, and has made gene editing more widely accessible.
But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has expressed concern about safety risks involved in DIY kits open to the general public for self-administered gene therapies.
Kiran Musunuru, a genetics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says the Crispr "scissors" often cut next to the targeted gene, triggering unexpected mutations.
"It's very simple to do unless you care about the results," Musunuru added.
Top U.S. science journal Science said last July that the various tools for public and private regulators to manage biohacking's public health threats were largely already available.
"But they can be used better," it said, in an opinion piece.
Maxim Skulachev, a Russian biologist at Moscow State University who studies longevity, said that biohackers were right to say that aging could be programmed into our genes and theoretically could possibly be blocked.
"We think aging was somehow introduced inside our genome as an application," he said. "For all of us the only way to fight aging is to somehow break the program -- hack it."
In doing so, this may end age-related conditions and cancer, he said, adding that living to the age of 100 would end up being the new norm.
Nevertheless, he also predicts that the super-elderly will develop other health issues limiting their lifespan which have not yet even manifested themselves.
The problem with biohackers is they are "running too fast," said Skulachev, 46, whose team is trying to create a drug to hinder the genetic aging process. "Right now there is no technology to break this program and from this perspective... biohackers are engaged in wishful thinking."
Yet biohacking in Russia has already been "a big movement" with conferences and businesses, says Skakun, who formerly worked in corporate finance.
2 yrs ago he founded a startup called Biodata that arranges tests for clients and stores information, charging 150,000 rubles ($2,430) for a complete checkup.
Clients are "mainly top managers and business people", he said.
Well-heeled patrons are also paying up to 250,000 rubles ($4,050) annually for a Moscow gym that calls itself a "biohacking laboratory". The fitness center, which opened this past year with the slogan "Upgrade Yourself", is on the 58th floor of a skyscraper in the business district.
Similarly, members are "company owners or top managers", says founder Artyom Vasilyev. The slim 29-year-old experienced sports science after competing seriously as a runner.
On the treadmill, a gym member dons a nose and mouth mask to investigate the gases in his breath. Minutes later he gets a breakdown that shows when his workout was most reliable. Afterwards, he stands in a chamber chilled by liquid nitrogen to minus 120 degrees Celsius (minus 184 Fahrenheit), which Vasilyev says aids recovery.
For all his enthusiasm, Vasilyev doubts that persons will live for hundreds of years anytime soon. "I'm more in to the proven fact that you can live 100, 115 years or 120 years but live them in a good-quality way."
Zaitsev, the chipping enthusiast, is scathing about the quest for longevity, which he calls "a kind of religion" seeking a "magic pill".
A month following the implantation, Rautkin is using his chipped hand to open doors at his e-commerce company.
Unfortunately it doesn't work on the primary door, but he's philosophical about this.
"I am using it quite successfully," he says. "It isn't a problem at all to eliminate it, or leave it for some other use, possibly to recognize myself in a few other place, maybe to unblock a phone or notebook."
