RUSSIA'S 11 TIME ZONES: CUTTING DOWN "DOMESTIC JETLAG"

For Singaporeans, it may be hard to imagine the vastness of Russia, for the time difference among the various regions of the country may be as much as 11 hours! Imagine this: when night falls in the westernmost Kaliningrad region, Russia’s eastern counterparts like Kamchatka see the birth of a new day. A country of such enormous longitude spawns certain difficulties in communication because major regional issues may only be resolved in Moscow. The situation is as follows: in the morning and afternoon, large regional firms and banks take care of local affairs but, by the end of the day, when office hours are over, they receive a list of instructions from the “Centre”. In most cases, these will be acted upon the next day only, resulting in the HQ’s losing a good 24 hours.

The President’s suggestion to reduce the number of time zones has been met controversially. First of all, the population is accustomed to a certain status of things. Secondly, what is good for Moscow is not necessarily suitable for other regions, so say Russia’s provinces. No wonder that the lion’s share of reform opponents is in the Far East and Siberia. If, for instance, in the Urals, the time may be adjusted by one or two hours, in Kamchatka, even three hours may not suffice, say the sceptics.

Gennady Lazarev, Director of Vladivostok University of Economics and Service, is one of the proponents of the suggested reform. In fact, he had been ahead of it as he had raised the idea of shifting the time of the Primorsky region closer to Moscow a couple of ears ago. Lazarev says: “To control a country with 11 time zones is obviously more complicated than to control one of a smaller size. The reduction of the number of time zones will change the country’s perception, for it will become more solid.” Lazarev proposes to do it gradually, with the process taking up to four years to allow people to adjust to the changes. The desirable modification would be to cut the time difference with Russia’s capital from seven hours (eight hours during winter time) to four, while maintaining the time zones of Kaliningrad, Moscow, the Urals and Siberia.

Some scientists have supported the idea. Evgeny Fedoseyev, Officer of Astrometry and Time Service at the Astronomy Institute of Moscow State University, believes that “today in reality there are fewer times zones in Russia than the official figure, and scaling them down from 11 to eight is not impossible”. Others refer to the example of China, which, despite its impressive length from west to east, lives in one time zone only: the Beijing zone.

There are opponents, too. These are Russians living in regions that would be the first to succumb to the time change, as well as representatives of the scientific community. They keep saying that the “long-term repercussions of such ‘violations of nature’ will be negative, exceeding the momentary benefits of such change”. By reducing the number of time zones by just half, how would it affect the habits of Russians?

By the way, their opinions are carefully considered. On the online LifeJournal blog of President Medvedev, a forum has been launched to prompt people to voice their opinions. So far, those against the change are prevailing, and those trying to substantiate its potential efficacy are losing. However, most experts agree: in the end, the government will carry out the time zone reform, but will make sure to do it gradually and with the utmost care.

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed to onsider reducing Russia’s 11 ime zones as one of the measures aimed to modernise the country’s economy. Veronika Kazakova (Vladivostok, Russia)

Gennady Lazarev