There are questions about Putin’s doctorate.
“The Mystery of Vladimir Putin’s Dissertation”
Igor Danchenko and Clifford Gaddy, The Brookings Institution
https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Putin-Dissertation-Event-remarks-with-slides.pdf
Also—”Russian President Vladimir Putin has been far less receptive to repeated allegations that he was not the intellectual braintrust behind his 1997 dissertation, “Mineral and Raw Materials Resources and the Development Strategy for the Russian Economy.”
Accusations against Putin first surfaced in 2006, when an investigation by the Brookings Institution alleged he copied about 16 pages of his 200-page Ph.D. dissertation from other sources.
Twelve years later, the Russian strongman found himself defending against accusations that his dissertation had been ghostwritten. According to former Russian legislator Olga Litvinenko, Putin’s dissertation was written by her father, Vladimir Litvinenko, Putin’s academic advisor and the rector of Saint Petersburg Mining University.
Also helpful in “writing” Putin’s dissertation, says Litvinenko: a photocopy machine.
Employing the only cut-and-paste technology available in the late 1990s, she says her father helped Putin cheat by using scissors to snip paragraphs from various sources, glued them together and copied them to create new pages in his dissertation.”
Check the Wiki for Olga Litivenko and decide on her impartiality.
He’s a very smart guy, and particularly track down his speeches at Rosneft. He understands the inevitability of Russian oil dominance. He understands the geology behind oil.
As for quoting a doctorate mentor/advisor, that’s pretty normal. There’s no there, there.