Belarus will not fall back from summer time

The government of Belarus has decided to follow Russia's example and use summer time as its new standard time.

The decision was not directly caused by Russia's decision, although it played a part.

During daylight saving time, Minsk, the capital of Belarus, is one hour behind Moscow. In winter the difference would be two hours if Belarus went back to standard time.

Partly because of the close economic and cultural ties between the two countries, and for other reasons, the government decided that Belarus will not change to winter time on Sunday 30 October 2011 but will stay on summer time.^[1]

Update, 26 October 2026: Belarus has kept UTC+3 all year since 2011, with no clock changes.^[1] Since Russia moved back to winter time on 26 October 2014, Minsk and Moscow have had the same time.^[2] See also: Russia switches to permanent winter time (2014).