Russia switches to permanent winter time

Russia's parliament voted to switch the clocks from permanent summer time to permanent winter time. The time change will occur on 26 October 2014.^[1] This means the sun rises an hour earlier by the clock every morning.

President Dmitry Medvedev introduced permanent summer time in 2011. A year earlier, in 2010, the number of time zones had been cut from eleven to nine.^[1][2]

The lower house of parliament, the State Duma, voted 442-1 to return to standard time this autumn and bring back eleven time zones.

Medvedev has argued that the change to permanent summer time would improve wellbeing but many Russians felt the opposite.

"The winter time does not now correspond to geography," explained Alexander Zhukov, who is the lower house vice-speaker.

Update, 25 October 2026: Russia has had no summer time since then: its clocks stay the same all year.^[2] See also: Russia stays on summer time all year from 2011 and Putin hints at a return to winter time in Russia (2012).