Journals

For the newspaper, see The Moscow Times.

File:Map of Russia - Time Zones (October 2014).svg

Time in Russia

	Time	Zone
	UTC+02:00	MSK−1: Kaliningrad Time
	UTC+03:00	MSK:+1 Moscow Time
	UTC+04:00	MSK+1: Samara Time
	UTC+05:00	MSK+2: Yekaterinburg Time
	UTC+06:00	MSK+3: Omsk Time
	UTC+07:00	MSK+4: Krasnoyarsk Time
	UTC+08:00	MSK+5: Irkutsk Time
	UTC+09:00	MSK+6: Yakutsk Time
	UTC+10:00	MSK+7: Vladivostok Time
	UTC+11:00	MSK+8: Srednekolymsk Time
	UTC+12:00	MSK+9: Kamchatka Time

File:Time zones of Europe.svg

Time in Europe:

light blue	Western European Time (UTC±00:00)
blue	Western European Time (UTC±00:00) Western European Summer Time (UTC+01:00)
pink	Central European Time (UTC+01:00)
red	Central European Time (UTC+01:00) Central European Summer Time (UTC+02:00)
yellow	Kaliningrad Time (UTC+02:00)
golden	Eastern European Time (UTC+02:00) Eastern European Summer Time (UTC+03:00)
light green	Further-eastern European Time, Moscow Time (UTC+03:00)

Light colours indicate countries that do not observe summer time: Algeria, Belarus, Iceland, Russia, Tunisia.

Moscow Time (Russian: Моско́вское вре́мя) is the time zone for the city of Moscow, Russia, and most of western Russia, including Saint Petersburg. It is the second-westernmost of the nine time zones of Russia. It has been set to UTC+3 permanently on October 26, 2014; before that date it had been set to UTC+4 year-round since March 27, 2011.

Moscow Time is used to schedule trains, ships, etc. throughout Russia, while airplane travel is scheduled using local time. Times in Russia are often announced throughout the country on radio stations as Moscow Time, and this time is also registered in telegrams, etc. Descriptions of time zones in Russia are often based on Moscow Time rather than UTC. For example, Yakutsk (UTC+9) is said to be MSK+6 within Russia.

History

In accordance with the June 16, 1930 Decree of the Council of People's Commissars, the Decree Time was introduced by adding one hour to the time in each time zone of the USSR, so that Moscow Time became three hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time.

Until 2011, during the winter, between the last Sunday of October and the last Sunday of March, Moscow Standard Time (MSK, МСК) was three hours ahead of UTC, or UTC+3; during the summer, Moscow Time shifted forward an additional hour ahead of Moscow Standard Time to become Moscow Summer Time (MSD), making it UTC+4.

In 2011, the Russian government proclaimed that daylight saving time would in future be observed all year round, thus effectively displacing standard time—an action which the government claimed emerged from health concerns attributed to the annual shift back-and-forth between standard time and daylight saving time. On March 27, 2011, Muscovites set their clocks forward for a final time, effectively observing MSD, or UTC+4, permanently.

On March 29, 2014, after the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol—two federal subjects established by Russia on the Crimean Peninsula—switched their time to MSK.

In July 2014, the State Duma passed a bill repealing the 2011 change, putting Moscow Time on permanent UTC+3.

Usage

Most of the European Russia (the portion of Russia west of the Ural Mountains) uses Moscow Time. In Kaliningrad Oblast, Kaliningrad time (UTC+2) is used. Samara Oblast and Udmurtia use Samara time (UTC+4) and Perm Krai, Bashkortostan and Orenburg Oblast use Yekaterinburg time (UTC+5).

Past usage

Prior to March 27, 2011, Moscow Time was UTC+3. Daylight saving time was used in the summer, advancing it to UTC+4.

UTC+3 was also formerly used in European parts of what was then the USSR:

• Belarus, in 1930–1991
• Estonia, in 1940–1989
• Latvia, in 1940–1989
• Lithuania, in 1940–1989
• Moldova, in 1940–1991
• Ukraine, in 1930–1990
• Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia), in 1946–1991
• Samara Oblast (Russia), in 1989–1991, and again from 2010–2011.

Moscow Summer Time (UTC+4), was first applied in 1981 and was used:

• until 1988 in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania
• until 1989 in Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine
• until 1990 in Kaliningrad Oblast.
• between 1989 and 1990 and in 2010 in Samara Oblast.

In 1922–1930 and 1991–1992, Moscow observed EET (UTC+2). Daylight saving time (UTC+3) was observed in the summer of 1991, and the city and region reverted to UTC+3 by the summer of 1992.

The time in Moscow has been as follows (the list of DST usage is probably not accurate here):

From 1880	UTC+2:30
From July 1919	UTC+3
From October 1922	UTC+2 (EET)
From June 21, 1930	UTC+3
From April 1, 1981	UTC+3 with DST
From March 31, 1991	UTC+2 with DST
From Jan 19, 1992	UTC+3 with DST
From March 27, 2011	UTC+4
From October 26, 2014	UTC+3

See also

• Time in Russia
• East Africa Time, also in UTC+03:00

External links

• Current time in Moscow