Russia stay in summer time all year round

It is not the first time that Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has fiddled with time. Last time, in 2010, the number of time zones was reduced from 11 to nine,^[1][2] to help ease local governance and communications with the capital.

This time President Dmitry Medvedev decided that Russia will stay on summer time permanently after the spring clock change. "I decided to cancel the shift to winter time, starting from this autumn," he said at a meeting with young scientists.^[1][3]

According to Mr. Medvedev, changing the clocks twice a year causes stress and illness among Russians.^[3] "It's just irritating, people either oversleep or wake up early and don't know what to do with the hour," he said. Mr. Medvedev also gave an example from the animal kingdom: "I'm not talking about the unhappy cows or other animals who don't understand the time change and don't understand that the milkmaid is going to milk them at a different time."

Russian doctors have been supportive, since moving the clocks back and forth disturbs natural body rhythms. Alexander Baranov, the head pediatrician at Russia's Ministry of Health, fully supported the President's decision. "Moving the clocks here and there has a bad influence on people's health, on their moods, and on their capacity to work," he said. "Children suffer particularly, when they have to wake up ahead of time."

Update, 26 October 2026: Permanent summer time lasted three years. On 26 October 2014 Russia moved to permanent winter time instead, and it has not changed its clocks since.^[2][4] See also: Putin hints at a return to winter time in Russia (2012) and Russia switches to permanent winter time (2014).