MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. Everybody in Russia, including the leader of Chechnya, must observe the existing laws, and nobody can be declared guilty before trial, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the annual news conference on Thursday.

After the night-time attack on the Chechen capital Grozny on December 4 the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, declared that “if a militant commits the murder of a police or any other person, the militant’s family will be instantly expelled from Chechnya without the right to ever get back and its home will be raised to the ground.”

“Everybody should remember that when pointing a firearm at a police officer or any other human. I will not let anybody shed blood here,” Kadyrov said.

On December 6, the homes of some militants both responsible and not responsible for that particular attack began to be pulled down or put on fire.

Putin said the law enforcement agencies must investigate the cases in which the homes of people whose relatives are suspected of terrorism were set ablaze.

“It would be correct to check all these facts. There must be an investigation of what happened,” he said. “Possibly somebody used that (murder of police in Grozny) as an excuse, or maybe not. Then the law enforcement agencies must react,” Putin said.

About the murder of police in Grozny Putin said he understood pretty well the way Kadyrov felt afterwards, but at the same time he believes that it was wrong to express the emotion the way Kadyrov did.

“The emotions are easy to understand. The terrorist raid left 14 police dead. It all began with an attack on traffic police. Those people were treacherously gunned down at point-blank range. Then many more people were killed and 38 others were injured. Finally thousands of people turned out for a rally,” Putin said. “In a situation like that Kadyrov made that emotional statement. I am certain it was consonant with the people’s expectations, but he had no right to that.”