Bush met with War Criminal Russian general

US President George W. Bush met this week with a Russian general linked to atrocities in Chechnya, the White House said Thursday, while suggesting that the meeting should not have taken place. Bush would have been "unlikely" to sit down with Russian General Vladimir Shamanov had the president known about allegations tying the general to the massacre of Chechen civilians, said spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Bush met with Shamanov as part of an effort to "reinvigorate" the work of a Russo-US commission on prisoners of war and missing-in-action soldiers, Perino told reporters.

"The president was attempting to reinvigorate that commission. That's why he agreed to this photo-op(portunity) with the official. The president was not aware of the allegations made against him (Shamanov)," said Perino.

Shamanov was one of three Russian generals in charge of a federal intervention against separatist rebels in breakaway Chechnya launched on October 1, 1999, now nearly into its 15th month. He was removed from duty in January 2000 following allegations he turned a blind eye to the massacre of civilians in a Chechen village southwest of Grozny. But officially he quit his job for reasons for ill-health.