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Russian Visitor an Embarrassment to Bush
U.S. President George W. Bush's reputation took another blow at the end of last week after he met in Washington with Gen. Vladimir Shamanov. Shamanov is a veteran of both Chechen campaigns, former governor of Ulyanovsk Region, advisor to Russian defense minister and cochairman of the U.S.-Russian commission on missing soldiers. He is suspected of human rights abuses during the first Chechen campaign in connection with the air bombing and artillery shelling of Alkhan-Yurt in November 1999.
Shamanov was in Washington in his capacity as cochairman of the commission on missing soldiers to discuss the search of Soviet soldiers who went missing in Afghanistan. He was accompanied to the meeting with the president by American cochairman of the commission retired Air Force Gen. Robert Foglesong. They were welcomed to the Oval Office and photographed with the president.
The White House was obviously caught off guard when congressional members joined in the chorus of disapproval raised by human rights groups. Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino explained that the meeting was part of an effort to “reinvigorate” the work of the commission. Bush, she said, “was not aware of the allegations” against Shamanov and would not have met with him if he had known of them.
The meeting between Shamanov and Bush was not announced in advance by the White House or the Russian embassy. A White House source told Kommersant that the arrangements for it were made by the U.S. presidential administration and the Russian Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry. The Russian Defense Ministry press service claims, however, that Shamanov was not in the United States on its behalf. A spokesman for the Russian presidential; administration said that they found out about Shamanov's meeting with Bush only after the fact.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 02, 2007
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