Bush met Russian general accused of Chechnya abuse

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush met this week with a Russian general accused of human rights abuses in Chechnya, but was not aware of the allegations, the White House said on Thursday.

Bush met Gen. Vladimir Shamanov in the Oval Office on Monday in an attempt to reinvigorate a U.S.-Russian commission on missing soldiers.

Shamanov is co-chairman of the commission along with his U.S. counterpart, retired Air Force Gen. Robert Foglesong, president of Mississippi State University.

The rights group Human Rights Watch has accused Shamanov of being in charge of a Russian battalion blamed for attacking the Chechnyan village of Alkhan-Yurt in December 1999, killing 17 civilians.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said it was "unlikely" that Bush would have met the general and posed for pictures with him if he had known about the charges.

"The president was not aware of the allegations made against him, and was seeking to sharpen the focus on the commission's good work, and due to the information about the current Russian commission leadership, we are going to review how best to move forward with that important work, without future photo ops," she said.