I met him in 2003 in the UK when he was doing a lecture tour. His colleague was translating into English for us, and every now and then they'd rattle away betwe

I met him in 2003 in the UK when he was doing a lecture tour. His colleague was translating into English for us, and every now and then they'd rattle away between themselves in Russian, causing my friend's wife to giggle. After the talk they did a photo session, and she spoke to them. "You have an interesting accent, where you from?" Asked one of them in Russian. "Siberia..." Apparently they'd been jesting all the way through: "You can't tell them that...", "You watch me..." RIP Alexei, space hero and nice guy as well.