Let there be (more) light, says Medvedev

There's not much the Kremlin can do to get rid of the long and difficult Russian winter - but it has decided that it can abolish "winter time", in a move announced this week by President Dmitry Medvedev.

The clocks will go forward to summer time as usual this spring, but they will not change back to winter time in the autumn. Medvedev argues that changing the clocks twice a year causes "stress and illness" among Russians.

"It's just irritating. People either oversleep or wake up early and don't know what to do with the hour."

Some critics wondered whether Medvedev might not have more pressing issues to worry about. But for many years the issue of time changes in Russia has been a hot topic.

When Medvedev mooted the idea during one of his first major political addresses, it got a louder ovation than any other policy. The move has won support among Russian doctors, who claim the clock changes disrupt natural body rhythms.

A posting on the Kremlin's website quoted a top government aide saying the move would result in between 7 and 17 per cent more daylight hours in various Russian regions. Winter days in many Russian cities are depressingly short - in some parts of the north the sun does not rise at all for two months.

The new move means the afternoons will be longer, but also that the mornings will be darker.

Some wondered whether extra hours in the evening were really worth paying for with the misery of dark and gloomy mornings. Academics in St Petersburg said the city would now be two hours ahead of its "natural" time zone in winter.

And from the end of this year, when people cross the border with Norway during the winter, they will have to move their clocks forward by three hours.

Last year, the country was compacted from 11 time zones to nine, with regions in the very far east moving from nine to eight hours ahead of Moscow, to help ease local governance and communications with the capital.

Further time changes are planned this year.

- Independent