|
Tuesday, 08.02.2011
Time change: Medvedev abolishes 'Winter Time'
Moscow. It will be summer all year round in Russia, President Medvedev announced that daylight-saving time will take place this year but will be irreversable. Early risers will stay in the dark for longer.
|
|
After 30 years, the annual change to daylight saving time will be abolished. Today, Dmitry Medvedev explained to Russian Economists that this year the clocks will move forward one hour in spring but will not go back in the autumn.
|
Medvedev steals one hour sleep from the Russians One more time we will have the annoying experience of losing one hour of sleep when we change to daylight saving time. But then the inconvenience will be over and we have the benefit of longer, lighter days told Medvedev his educated audience.
|
Thus Russia repeats a measure that Stalin had announced with the so-called 'Decree on time' in the 1930s, where clocks are moved forward by one hour, compared to their natural time zone. This will allow a more economic use of daylight.
|
Based on this decree the Soviet Union introduced the daylight saving time in 1981 which has been activated and deactivated yearly at the same time as most countries in the northern Hemisphere.
|
Three hour time difference to Europe Should Medvedev actually steal another hour from the Russians, then Russia will move one time zone further East compared to Western Europe. In winter the time difference between the Mid-European time zone and the in the western part of Russia located Moscow, will be three hours. It will be even more prominent in the European parts of Russia, that Russian time and the position of the sun are no longer comparable. In St Petersburg, the northern part of western Russia, it does not get light before 11am during the Christmas period.
|
The cannon, fired daily at midday from the Peter and Paul Fortress will actually be fired mid-morning. But at least it will stay light until 5pm. Medvedev's time change will have virtually no effect in Neva, where thanks to the 'White Nights' it stays light around the clock.
|
Medvedev will make history as a time reformer Medvedev explained his time reformation with mounting complaints from the public who dislike the twice annual change of time. The human biorhythm gets disrupted which annoys everybody, not to mention the poor animals that do not understand why the milkmaids arrive at a different time, he stated.
|
Medvedev considered this Russian time reform for some time. He criticized the 11 time zones in the country as an economic barrier and removed two time zones in 2010.
|
|
