Did TIME publish photo of Putin overlaid on photo of Hitler on cover? Fact Check

ByCraig Haley

Claims on social media purport to show the latest TIME Magazine cover which features an image of Russian president Vladimir Putin partially torn to reveal a photograph of Adolf Hitler underneath.

FALSE

The alleged TIME magazine cover has been retweeted by a number of high profile social media accounts. Such an example is below.

Despite the claims, this Putin cover of TIME is not a genuine issue of the popular magazine.

In fact the fake cover was designed by graphic designer Patrick Mulder. According to Mulder in a series of tweets, he believed the genuine TIME magazine was “uninspired and lacked conviction”. Mulder had created three different covers, all featuring Putin, of which the above example is one.


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According to Mulder, the image wasn’t originally intended to be framed within the iconic TIME branding but later opted to do so because of how “powerful” the image turned out to be.

I wanted to create something that added to the conversation around the invasion of Ukraine and captured the public mood. It wasn’t originally intended to be a TIME cover. The finished image was so powerful, I felt that it deserved to be framed in an equally powerful way.

Mulder’s fake TIME magazine cover doesn’t seem to have been intended to fool social media users. But as users began to share it online and as it began to spread virally, many users – including a number of verified high profile accounts – have mistook the cover as genuine.

Mulder also released the following statement on Twitter.

The real TIME magazine cover – a double edition for March 14th and March 21st 2022 – actually features six soldiers in Ukraine on a tank. It can be seen on the official TIME account here.

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