Astronaut-minister tells reporters about Catalunya...in 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.

A flood of tweets tagging @astro_duque included GIFs of surprised-looking celebrities, with some who understood his words directly congratulating him and remarking that he 'talks with greater ease in Russian than in Spanish', given that the science and universities minister is known for being an introvert who dislikes public speaking – even though he was clearly enjoying himself earlier this year at a children's question and answer session about what life was like in space.

One Twitter user who goes by the username of Nanook The Eskimo offered him a saludo, or a 'greeting', to 'Pedro the Duke', as his surname translates, with a Russian slant: “Un saludovsky a Pedro Sobradov.”

Spain's government also uploaded a video of several of its members publicly defending the country's democracy in various languages, which included Pedro Duque giving the speech in German and Russian, and acting president Pedro Sánchez doing so in English, a language in which he is fluent.

Photograph: Screenshot of Pedro Duque's interview on Vesti News on Russian TV channel Rossiya 24, from the minister's Twitter site (@astro_duque)