Why Russian Leaders Are Exempt From Fasting

It was the first week of Lent...
Hearing that the Tsar was coming to visit him, Nicholas found a piece of raw meat and, when the Tsar entered his cell, Nicholas bowed down, and offered the meat to the Tsar:

Eat, little Ivan, eat !

The terrible Tsar answered him furiously:

I am a Christian, and do not eat any meat during Lent !

To which the man of God promptly retorted:

You do that, and much worse !
You feed on men's flesh and blood,
forgetting not only the Fast, but God as well !

This lecture entered deeply into the heart of Tsar Ivan, and he immediately left Pskov in shame, having intended to wreak great slaughter there.