ASTRONAUT-TURNED-SCIENCE minister Pedro Duque has revealed a hidden talent which has gone viral on Twitter: He speaks fluent Russian.
Duque, who inspired children all over Spain to want to be spacemen and spacewomen when he appeared on their TV screens 15 years ago and was the first Spaniard to travel to the moon, was interviewed on Russian television channel Rossiya 24 about the political crisis in Catalunya sparked by the Supreme Court verdict on the regional politicians involved in the disputed independence referendum of October 1, 2017.
High-profile party leaders and ministers including Oriol Junqueras and Dolors Bassa have been sentenced to between 10 and 13 years in prison, and a European arrest warrant for deposed regional president Carles Puigdemont – who has lived in Waterloo, Belgium for two years – has been revived.
In response, protests have taken over major cities and large towns in the north-eastern region, some of which – led by radicals such as the CDR and dubbed a 'Democratic Tsunami' – have turned into riots with violence, vandalism and arson.
Rossiya 24 is one of the dozens of TV channels worldwide reporting on the growing unrest, and Pedro Duque spoke to them because his Russian is fluent – probably from his days in space, given the huge eastern nation's major rôle in these missions.
“Spain has a consolidated democracy, one of the best in the world,” Duque told a reporter on Rossiya 24's programme Vesti News.
“We need to start a new phase for everyone's sake.
“The quality of Spanish institutions guarantees we can all live together safely and legally.”
Duque tweeted a video of his slot on Vesti News, along with a transcript of what he said in Russian, and a translation of it into Spanish.
Social media users were stunned, as the minister's firm grasp of the Russian language is not something widely known.
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