Time in Russia


There are eleven time zones in Russia, which currently observe times ranging from UTC+02:00 to UTC+12:00. Daylight saving time is not used in Russia. From 27 March 2011 to 26 October 2014, permanent DST was used.

List of zones

Since 28 October 2018, the time zones are as follows:
Time zone nameTime of day and abbreviationUTC offsetMSK offsetArea coveredPopulation
Kaliningrad TimeMSK–1hKaliningrad Oblast969,000
Moscow TimeMSK+0hMost of European Russia 86,725,000
Samara TimeMSK+1hAstrakhan Oblast, Samara Oblast, Saratov Oblast, Udmurtia, Ulyanovsk Oblast and Volgograd Oblast12,064,000
Yekaterinburg TimeMSK+2hBashkortostan, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Kurgan Oblast, Orenburg Oblast, Perm Krai, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Tyumen Oblast and Yamalia20,986,000
Omsk TimeMSK+3hOmsk Oblast1,978,000
Krasnoyarsk TimeMSK+4hAltai Krai, Altai Republic, Kemerovo Oblast, Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Novosibirsk Oblast, Tomsk Oblast and Tuva12,854,000
Irkutsk TimeMSK+5hIrkutsk Oblast and Buryatia3,393,000
Yakutsk TimeMSK+6hAmur Oblast, Zabaykalsky Krai and most of the Sakha Republic 2,794,000
Vladivostok TimeMSK+7hJewish Autonomous Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai, and the Oymyakonsky, Ust-Yansky and Verkhoyansky districts of the Sakha Republic3,471,000
Magadan TimeMSK+8hMagadan Oblast, Sakhalin Oblast, and the Abyysky, Allaikhovsky, Momsky, Nizhnekolymsky, Srednekolymsky and Verkhnekolymsky districts of the Sakha Republic665,000
Kamchatka TimeMSK+9hChukotka and Kamchatka Krai368,000

Daylight saving time

Daylight saving time in Russia was originally introduced on 1 July 1917 by a decree of the Russian Provisional Government. However, it was abandoned by a Decree of the Soviet government six months later.
Daylight saving time was re-introduced in the USSR on 1 April 1981, by a decision of the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Daylight saving time began on 1 April and ended on 1 October each year, until mid-1984, when the USSR began following European daylight saving time rules, moving clocks forward one hour at 02:00 local standard time on the last Sunday in March, and back one hour at 03:00 local daylight time on the last Sunday in September until 1995, after which the change back occurred on the last Sunday in October. The usage of daylight saving time continued after the Soviet collapse but ended in 2011, when Russia stopped observing daylight saving time.
On 27 March 2011, clocks were advanced as usual, but they did not go back on 30 October 2011, effectively making Moscow Time UTC+04:00 permanently. On 26 October 2014, following another change in the law, the clocks in most of the country were moved back one hour, but summer Daylight Time was not reintroduced; Moscow Time returned to UTC+03:00 permanently.

History

Russian Empire

In the Russian Empire, most of the nation observed solar time. From 1740s to 1867, Alaska belonged to Russia which used the Julian calendar which was 11 or 12 days behind the Gregorian calendar as the rest of Russia and had local times up to GMT+15:10. The westernmost area of Russia was Congress Poland, with local times down to GMT+01:10.
During the late 19th century, Moscow Mean Time was introduced on 1 January 1880, originally at. 2:30:17 corresponds to 37.6166667°, the longitude of Moscow. Other parts of Russia kept solar time for several years.
Russia adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1918, when Wednesday 31 January was followed by Thursday 14 February, which dropped 13 days from the calendar.

Soviet Union

After the Soviet Union was created, Moscow Time became UTC+02:00 and the various other time zones were introduced throughout Russia and the rest of the Soviet Union, for example Irkutsk Time UTC+07:00. Between 1917-1922 the time was less ordered, with daylight saving time some of those years, some with two hours addition, and some of those years with one or two hours extra winter time.
On 21 June 1930, the Soviet Union advanced all clocks by one hour, effectively making the nation run on daylight saving time all year.
On 1 April 1981, 00:00:00, Oymyakonsky District changed its time zone from MSK+6 to MSK+8.
The change occurred during DST effectively changing the offset from UTC+09:00 to UTC+12:00, the offset without DST was therefore changed from UTC+09:00 to UTC+11:00.
On 1 April 1982, 00:00:00, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug changed its time zone from MSK+10 to MSK+9, thus eliminating Anadyr Time.
The change occurred during DST effectively changing the offset from UTC+14:00 to UTC+13:00, the offset without DST was therefore changed from UTC+13:00 to UTC+12:00.
On 27 March 1988, 02:00:00, Saratov and Volgograd oblasts changed its time zone from MSK+1 to MSK.
The change occurred during DST effectively changing the offset from UTC+05:00 to UTC+04:00, the offset without DST was therefore changed from UTC+04:00 to UTC+03:00.
On 26 March 1989, the following changes were introduced, which, in particular, some oblasts switched to Moscow Time :
Some oblasts switched from Moscow Time to Eastern European Time:
Russia and most republics in the Soviet Union abolished the decree time on 31 March 1991, but Russia reversed this the following year.
On 20 October 1991, Samara Oblast changed its time zone from MSK to MSK+1. So the zone boundaries on 20 October, Samara Oblast changed its time zone from UTC+03:00 to UTC+04:00.
On 23 May 1993, Novosibirsk Oblast changed its time zone from MSK+4 to MSK+3.
The change occurred during DST effectively changing the offset from UTC+08:00 to UTC+07:00, the offset without DST was therefore changed from UTC+07:00 to UTC+06:00.
On 28 May 1995, Altai Krai and Altai Republic changed its time zone from MSK+4 to MSK+3.
On 30 March 1997, Sakhalin Oblast changed its time zone from MSK+8 to MSK+7.
In May 2002, Tomsk Oblast changed its time zone from MSK+4 to MSK+3.
The following time zone changes occurred on 28 March 2010, which, in particular, led to abolition of two of the eleven time zones.
Although the Russian government wants to reduce the number of time zones even further, there have been protests in far-eastern Russia on the recent changes, including protests and a 20,000-strong petition in support of Kamchatka returning to UTC+12:00.
The decree No. 725 changed UTC offset for Moscow Time and the other time zones. Moscow Time Zone now used UTC+04:00 all year around. The notions of decree time and daylight saving time were abolished in the law, but in fact, this law mandated permanent daylight saving time. Some areas changed offset from Moscow:
Some districts of the Sakha Republic switched from Magadan Time to Vladivostok Time :
Some districts of the Sakha Republic switched from Vladivostok Time to Yakutsk Time :
Blue Yakutsk Time, pink Vladivostok Time, red Magadan Time.
As a result of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, local authorities in the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol decreed that clocks in the newly proclaimed Russian federal subjects should jump ahead two hours at 10 p.m. on 29 March 2014 to switch from Eastern European Time to Moscow Time.
On 22 July 2014, further changes were passed, which took effect on 26 October 2014. All of Russia moved back one hour, so Moscow Time became UTC+03:00 again.
Some areas changed offset from Moscow:
Annual DST changes is not observed.
:
The following time zone changes occurred on 27 March 2016:
The following time zone change occurred on 24 April 2016:
After these changes, the UTC+11:00 time zone is also named Magadan Time, Srednekolymsk Time or Sakhalin Time.
The following time zone change occurred on 29 May 2016:
The following time zone change occurred on 24 July 2016:
The following time zone change occurred on 4 December 2016:
The following time zone change occurred on 28 October 2018:
Until 2018, all timetables on Russian Railways followed Moscow Time. From 2018 time tables follow local time.
Airports and flights follow local time.

Tz Database

For Russia, the tz database contains several zones in the file zone.tab.

List of zones

The list below shows the 16 zones for Russia as defined in the file zone.tab of the database. The database aims to identify regions that had the same time offset rules since 1970.
Two federal subjects are contained in more than one tz zone. The Sakha Republic is divided into three: west, central, east. Sakhalin Oblast is divided into two: Sakhalin Island with Kurilsky and Yuzhno-Kurilsky districts in the Kuril Islands, and Severo-Kurilsky District in the Kuril Islands.
On the last Sunday in October 2011, daylight-saving time ended in tzdata, but all zones moved forward one hour. In other words, the clocks did not change, but the names of the time zones reverted permanently to their standard time variants and there will be no more daylight-saving time.
If available, the change column lists the offset changes that caused a creation of a new zone in the tz database.
"Initial zone" means that in 1970 there was already a difference in time offset from the offsets in any other zone.
C.c.CoordinatestzidCommentsUTC offset Covered areaSplit fromChanges
Kaliningrad OblastInitial zone1989-03-26 Change from to ---
Most of European Russia. Complete list given here.Initial zone---
Kirov Oblast, Saratov Oblast, Volgograd Oblast, and Astrakhan OblastEurope/Samara1992-03-29 Zone creation, causing change from to ---
Samara Oblast and UdmurtiaInitial zone2010-03-28 Change from to ---
Ulyanovsk OblastEurope/Moscow2016-03-27 Zone creation, causing change from to ---
Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk Oblast, Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Kurgan Oblast, Orenburg Oblast, Perm Krai, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Tyumen Oblast, and YamaliaInitial zone---
Altai Krai, Altai Republic, and Omsk Oblast
  • 1995-05-28 Zone creation, causing change from to
  • 1992-01-19 Change from to
---
Novosibirsk Oblast and Tomsk Oblast.
  • 1993-05-23 Zone creation, causing change from UTC+07 to UTC+06
  • 2002-05-01 Change from UTC+07 to UTC+06
    		• ---
    Kemerovo OblastAsia/Novosibirsk2010-03-28 Zone creation, causing change from Krasnoyarsk Time to Novosibirsk Time---
    Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, and Tuva Republic---
    Irkutsk Oblast and Buryatia---
    Amur Oblast, Zabaykalsky Krai, and western Sakha Republic---
    Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Primorsky Krai, and central Sakha RepublicInitial zone---
    Sakhalin Island, and western Kuril IslandsAsia/Magadan1997-03-30 Zone creation, causing change from UTC+11 to UTC+10---
    Oymyakonsky DistrictAsia/Yakutsk1981-04-01 Changed to Magadan time---
    Magadan OblastInitial zone2014-10-26 Split: Magadan Oblast changed to Vladivostok time, other areas using new Srednekolymsk time---
    eastern Kuril Islands, and eastern Sakha RepublicAsia/Magadan2014-10-26---
    Kamchatka KraiInitial zone2010-03-28 Change from to ---
    Chukotka Autonomous OkrugInitial zone
  • 1982-04-01 Changed from to
  • 2010-03-28 Changed from to
    		• ---

    Deleted zones

    Asia/Ulan Ude was a time zone identifier from the zone file of the tz database. The reference point was Ulan-Ude. It was added in tz version 2011e. Edition 2011i did not contain it anymore. The area remained at Asia/Irkutsk.
    The contained data in zone.tab was:
    RU
    +5150+10736
    Asia/Ulan_Ude
    Moscow+05 - Buryatia
    The covered area was Republic of Buryatia.

    Federal subjects with multiple offsets at the same time

    Per a 2011 law, last amended in 2016, the territory of Sakha Republic observes more than one offset.
    ;Sakha Republic