2 Oct 2018 20:43

Urban's book about Skripal based on Internet material - niece

MOSCOW. Oct 2 (Interfax) - The niece of the former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal said that the published extract from The Skripal Files book written by British journalist Mark Urban contains many contradictions to real events.

"This book contains nothing of what has not been in public domain. If he had really talked to Sergei Viktorovich, certain facts would not have been there because they never happened," Viktoria Skripal told Interfax on Tuesday.

She denies, for instance, that her uncle may have been sending books to agents in Spain with his daughter. "It [the extract] says that he sent his daughter, sometimes alone sometimes with her mother, to Spain to pass some books to agents. Back then Yulia was a kid and simply could not travel alone," Viktoria said.

She also noted that her uncle had always cherished his family and would have never put it at risk.

Nor has the author provided any documentary or visual evidence of his meetings with Skripal, she said.

"If a book is being written, there should be an agreement between the author and co-author or between the author and the publisher. It is not just we who have such laws. I know they, too, have the same [laws] because if Sergei Viktorovich acts as an [co-]author, as we are being told, there should be an agreement. No need to disclose the commercial secret, just open the last page and show signatures. Furthermore, Urban says that he saw Sergei Viktorovich's family archive, but then he should have provided photos which weren't in the press. But none of that is shown to us," Viktoria Skripal said.

She said she was going to read the whole book, which is due to be published on October 4.