Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov has spoken about why he studied the Turkish language during his studies at the Institute of Asian and African Studies at Moscow State University.

Axar.az reports that he was not admitted to the institute on his first attempt. On his second attempt, he did not score enough points to obtain the right to choose his language of study.

Peskov said he had originally wanted to study Arabic, but due to his low exam results, he was assigned Turkish instead.

“I perceived studying Turkish as a kind of punishment,” he said.

Peskov graduated from the Institute of Asian and African Studies in 1989 and was immediately employed by the USSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.