Wonderful article! As a life-long fan of Tolstoy and Russian literature in general, I'm often amazed when Russians I know, who I also know don't read very regularly, still invoke the great Russian authors on a variety of subjects. I think, like our own holy writ, they tend to imbibe these works second-hand in memorized passages rather than in cold, clear reading. For example, at the school I teach at we have a professor from the former Soviet Union, and she only teaches memorization in her Russian lit classes. She finds close reading and interpretation anathema. So while I think Putin has read Tolstoy, he's only read the famous excerpts which are easily twisted out of context and used willy-nilly to justify whatever talking point they need to support, much the way we do in our country with the Bible. Because as you state, reading Tolstoy carefully would contradict everything Putin is and stands for, and would lead to a hard self-examination for this modern-day despot.