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Russia to consider bending time zones
Source: Agencies |
November 14, 2009, Saturday
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RUSSIA has 11 time zones across its vast territory - and its leaders believe that's just too many hours in the day.
President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that Russia reduce the number of time zones in the name of economic efficiency, which could have residents in the far eastern city of Vladivostok eating their breakfast blini at the same time their Chinese neighbors just a few kilometers away are slurping their noodles at lunch.
With one-ninth of the world's land mass, Russia stretches from Kaliningrad, which is next to Poland, more than 8,851 kilometers to the eastern tip of Chukotka, across the Bering Strait from Alaska.
So when the Kremlin's bell tower on Red Square tolls 9am at the start of the business day in Moscow, it's already 6pm in Russia's Far East.
Russia's vastness is a source of national pride, but it also hinders economic development, Medvedev said.
"The examples of other countries - the United States, China - show that it is possible to cope with a smaller time difference," Medvedev said in his annual state-of-the-nation speech on Thursday.
"We need to examine the possibility of reducing the number of time zones."
Medvedev didn't say how extensive any cut would be, but Vladivostok Economics University rector Gennady Lazarev told the RIA Novosti news agency it would likely mean shrinking to just four time zones - one each for Kaliningrad, Moscow, the Ural Mountains region and vast Siberia and the Far East.
Less than a quarter of Russia's 142 million people live east of the Urals, the boundary between Europe and Asia. Those areas constitute two-thirds of Russia.
Cutting down to four zones would likely mean reducing the seven-hour time difference between Moscow and Vladivostok to just four hours, Lazarev said. That would mean sunset would fall in Vladivostok at 3pm at this time of year.
"It's potentially life-changing for some people, for the sake of convenience in Moscow," said Lilia Shevtsova, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested that Russia reduce the number of time zones in the name of economic efficiency, which could have residents in the far eastern city of Vladivostok eating their breakfast blini at the same time their Chinese neighbors just a few kilometers away are slurping their noodles at lunch.
With one-ninth of the world's land mass, Russia stretches from Kaliningrad, which is next to Poland, more than 8,851 kilometers to the eastern tip of Chukotka, across the Bering Strait from Alaska.
So when the Kremlin's bell tower on Red Square tolls 9am at the start of the business day in Moscow, it's already 6pm in Russia's Far East.
Russia's vastness is a source of national pride, but it also hinders economic development, Medvedev said.
"The examples of other countries - the United States, China - show that it is possible to cope with a smaller time difference," Medvedev said in his annual state-of-the-nation speech on Thursday.
"We need to examine the possibility of reducing the number of time zones."
Medvedev didn't say how extensive any cut would be, but Vladivostok Economics University rector Gennady Lazarev told the RIA Novosti news agency it would likely mean shrinking to just four time zones - one each for Kaliningrad, Moscow, the Ural Mountains region and vast Siberia and the Far East.
Less than a quarter of Russia's 142 million people live east of the Urals, the boundary between Europe and Asia. Those areas constitute two-thirds of Russia.
Cutting down to four zones would likely mean reducing the seven-hour time difference between Moscow and Vladivostok to just four hours, Lazarev said. That would mean sunset would fall in Vladivostok at 3pm at this time of year.
"It's potentially life-changing for some people, for the sake of convenience in Moscow," said Lilia Shevtsova, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center.
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