Western magazine covers are having a field day with Russia's military occupation of Crimea, portraying President Vladimir Putin variously as an arsonist, a strait-jacketed crazy, or a devilish, Brezhnevesque presence. Russian-language publications, meanwhile, are largely taking a less strident approach.
Covered: Magazines On 'Putin's Crimean War'
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"Putin's Crimean War. What's Russia Playing At? What Threatens Poland?" asks Poland's "Polityka."
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"'Evil Empire. If The World Does Not Stop Putin Now, It May Soon Be Too Late," says Polish "Newsweek."
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Germany's "Der Spiegel" labels the Russian president "The Arsonist. Who will stop Putin?"
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For Dutch weekly "Elsevier" the question is, "Does Putin Know His Limits?"
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"Argumenty i fakty" plays on the similarity between the Russian for "peninsula" (half-island) and "island." "The Crimean half-ISLAND. Is Southeast Ukraine Drifting Toward Russia?" asks the Russian news magazine.
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"The Dementia Is Intense And Our Tanks Are Fast." "Novaya gazeta's" headline plays on a literary cliche ("the 'frost is hard") that is used to describe an absurd situation. The tanks are a reference to the wartime patriotic song, "The march of the Soviet tankmen." Alongside its cannon-as-meat grinder, the Russian newspaper writes, "Under the pretext of the Ukrainian crisis, Moscow is ready to make decisions that will hit ordinary citizens."
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"Russky reporter" current-affairs weekly asks, "Can War Be Averted?"
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"Is Lenin So Precious?" asks Ukrainian magazine "Korrespondent," which promises to "explain the mood in regions unsupportive of Maidan."
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Czech weekly "Respekt" gives Putin the unmistakable eyebrows of an earlier Kremlin leader, Leonid Brezhnev, on its cover page headlined: "The World According To Putin."