Russian winter time

Yet another time change dawns in Russia.

©iStockphoto.com/Alexey Bushtruk

Russia will switch to permanent standard (winter) time starting October 28, the Duma

Disagreement as the whether this decision could be made by the government alone ofr whether approval bythe Duma was also needed.

Complete reversal from 2011

This new proposal is a total reversal from last year's time change when then-president Dmitry Medvedev decided to abolish winter time and stay on Daylight Saving Time, also known as "Summer Time", all year round.

The Russians all turned their clocks one hour forward on 27 March 2011, making Daylight Saving Time Russia's new standard time. This was announced amid research which apparently showed that the yearly time adjustment back and forth was likely to cause a number of health problems. Medvedev explained: "It really disturbs the human biorhythm. It's just irritating. People either oversleep or wake up early and don't know what to do with the hour", and added "And I'm not talking about unhappy cows or other animals who don't understand the time change and don't understand that the milkmaid is going to milk them at a different time".