Russian City Rips Off Chicago Magazine Cover

Magazine officials claim issue violates copyright laws

Chicago's Russian sister city is Moscow, but you'd be forgiven for thinking its actually Krasnodar.

At least judging by Krasnodar magazine's February issue "30 Reasons to Love Krasnodar," a virtual carbon copy of Chicago magazine's December issue, "40 Reasons to Love Chicago."

Editor Richard Babcock posted in a staff blog Tuesday that he was alerted to the similarities between the two issues by several Russian friends, and that the cover and design of several pages were similar to Chicago magazine's.

An American, Timothy Post, was mentioned as a participant in the Krasnodar magazine design, but NBCChicago.com has learned that is not the case.

Post, who was named by Chicago Magazine as a contributor to the artistic pilfering, said he had no hand whatsoever in the Krasnodar cover art and merely suggested to its publisher, Yury Vasilcheko that the time for a city magazine was ripe.

“I actually had no idea about the cover or the contents of the magazine until I picked up a physical copy in one of the cafes of Krasnodar,” Post wrote. “Obviously, when I first saw the issue of the magazine I had no idea that the cover was copied from Chicago Magazine. …Let me repeat one again that I had no role in the creation of the magazine cover, in question, nor any participation in the content of the magazine.”

A previous version of this story implied that Post did have an active role in the design. We regret the error.

Contact Us