The Russian government has decided to remove two of its eleven timezones,
in the country's first step towards time reform, first started by
president Dmitriy Medvedev in last November.

The affected regions were Chukotka, the easternmost province of Russia
were moved back an hour, as were and Samara and Udmurtia, which are now
on Moscow time.  The changes were implemented on Saturday night, when
most of the country was due to put their country ahead for summer time;
however, affected areas instead didn't change their clocks at all.

"It's possible that this could also aid the strengthening of Russia's
position as a link in the global information infrastructure," Medvedev
remarked earlier this month.  "Reducing of amount of time zones is very
efficient for managing, for accordance of actions, for approximation of
far regions to the center," commented Arkady Tishkov, who is a deputy
science director of Geography Institution for the Russian Academy
of Sciences. Tishkov speculated that the number of time zones could
eventually be reduced to six.  Meanwhile, an online petition has been
posted opposing the time change for the Samara province, and it has
garnered close to 13,000 signatures. "Trips take place to many regions
of the country and world where time, you understand, far from always
corresponds with Moscow," the text of the petition read, adding that
"In the winter, darkness will come almost at lunchtime, which isn't
convenient and is psychologically quite hard."