Last reviewed on August 28, 2026
How many time zones does Russia have?
Russia has 11 time zones, more than any other country in the world. They run from Kaliningrad Time (UTC+2) on the Baltic coast to Kamchatka Time (UTC+12) on the Pacific, a spread of ten hours across a single country. When it is 9:00 a.m. in Kaliningrad, it is already 7:00 p.m. in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.
The current count has been in place since October 26, 2014. Between 2010 and 2014 Russia briefly consolidated to nine zones, but the change pushed several regions too far from solar time and was reversed. Since 2014 none of the Russian time zones change for daylight saving, so every offset on this page is valid all year. The full story is on our daylight saving time in Russia page.
List of Russian time zones
Each row shows the zone's official abbreviation, its UTC offset, the IANA identifier used by computers and phones, the main cities in the zone, and its difference from Moscow Time. The right-hand column is a live clock for that zone.
| Time zone | UTC offset | IANA identifier | Major cities | vs. Moscow | Time now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kaliningrad Time (KALT) | UTC+2 | Europe/Kaliningrad | Kaliningrad | −1 hour | --:-- |
| Moscow Time (MSK) | UTC+3 | Europe/Moscow | Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don, Sochi, Volgograd | Reference | --:-- |
| Samara Time (SAMT) | UTC+4 | Europe/Samara | Samara, Izhevsk, Astrakhan, Saratov, Ulyanovsk | +1 hour | --:-- |
| Yekaterinburg Time (YEKT) | UTC+5 | Asia/Yekaterinburg | Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Perm, Ufa, Tyumen | +2 hours | --:-- |
| Omsk Time (OMST) | UTC+6 | Asia/Omsk | Omsk | +3 hours | --:-- |
| Krasnoyarsk Time (KRAT) | UTC+7 | Asia/Krasnoyarsk, Asia/Novosibirsk | Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Tomsk, Barnaul, Kemerovo | +4 hours | --:-- |
| Irkutsk Time (IRKT) | UTC+8 | Asia/Irkutsk | Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Lake Baikal region | +5 hours | --:-- |
| Yakutsk Time (YAKT) | UTC+9 | Asia/Yakutsk, Asia/Chita | Yakutsk, Chita, Blagoveshchensk | +6 hours | --:-- |
| Vladivostok Time (VLAT) | UTC+10 | Asia/Vladivostok | Vladivostok, Khabarovsk | +7 hours | --:-- |
| Magadan Time (MAGT) | UTC+11 | Asia/Magadan, Asia/Sakhalin | Magadan, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk | +8 hours | --:-- |
| Kamchatka Time (PETT) | UTC+12 | Asia/Kamchatka, Asia/Anadyr | Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Anadyr | +9 hours | --:-- |
To convert a specific time between any two of these zones — or from your own location — use the Russia time zone converter. For a map view of where each zone falls, see the interactive map on the homepage.
Which time zone is most of Russia in?
By population, Moscow Time (MSK, UTC+3) dominates. It covers the capital, St. Petersburg, and nearly all of European Russia west of the Volga, and more than two-thirds of the country's people live in it. National television schedules, federal government hours, and the Russian Railways timetable all use Moscow Time as the reference, which is why the "difference from Moscow" column above is the number most Russians actually use day to day.
By land area the picture is the opposite: the sparsely populated zones from Yekaterinburg eastward cover most of the map. Siberia alone spans five zones (UTC+5 through UTC+9), and the Far East adds three more.
Russian time zones compared with the rest of the world
Because Russia does not observe daylight saving, the difference between a Russian zone and a foreign city changes twice a year whenever the foreign city changes its clocks. A few common comparisons:
- London to Moscow: Moscow is 3 hours ahead in the UK winter (GMT) and 2 hours ahead in the UK summer (BST).
- New York to Moscow: Moscow is 8 hours ahead in winter (EST) and 7 hours ahead in summer (EDT).
- Berlin to Kaliningrad: Kaliningrad is 1 hour ahead in winter and level with Berlin in summer.
- Beijing to Irkutsk: the same time all year (both UTC+8).
- Tokyo to Vladivostok: Vladivostok is 1 hour ahead of Tokyo all year.
- Sydney to Kamchatka: Kamchatka is 2 hours ahead of Sydney in the Australian winter (AEST) and 1 hour ahead in the Australian summer (AEDT).
Why Russia has so many time zones
The short answer is longitude. Russia stretches roughly 170 degrees of longitude from the Baltic to the Bering Strait — nearly halfway around the planet. With the sun moving 15 degrees of longitude per hour, that width corresponds to about 11 hours of solar time, so 11 zones is close to the geographic ideal. A single national time zone, like China uses, would put sunrise near midnight on one end of the country or another.
The zone boundaries do not follow lines of longitude exactly. They follow the borders of Russia's federal subjects (oblasts, republics, and krais), so that a single region never has two local times. Where a region straddles a natural boundary, it is assigned to the zone that keeps its main city closest to solar time, which is why Moscow Time reaches unusually far east and why Novosibirsk moved from UTC+6 to UTC+7 in 2016.
How the count changed over time
- 1919: Soviet Russia adopts the international time zone system, with 11 zones.
- 1981–2010: Seasonal daylight saving time is observed alongside the 11 zones.
- 2010: Two zones (Samara and Kamchatka) are merged into their neighbors, reducing the count to 9.
- 2011: Clock changes stop; the country freezes on permanent "summer time," one hour ahead of standard.
- 2014: Russia returns to permanent standard time and restores Samara and Kamchatka as separate zones — back to 11.
- 2016: Several regions, including Novosibirsk and Tomsk, shift one hour east to align better with solar time. The total stays at 11.
Frequently asked questions
Is it always the same time in Moscow and St. Petersburg?
Yes. Both cities are in Moscow Time (UTC+3) and always show the same clock. See the St. Petersburg time page for local details.
What time zone is Siberia in?
Siberia spans five zones: Yekaterinburg (UTC+5), Omsk (UTC+6), Krasnoyarsk (UTC+7), Irkutsk (UTC+8), and Yakutsk (UTC+9). Ask which city, not which region, when you need a time.
Does Russia have daylight saving time?
No. Russia abolished DST in 2014, so every offset in the table above is fixed year-round. Our DST in Russia page explains the history.
What is the time difference across Russia from end to end?
Ten hours, from Kaliningrad (UTC+2) to Kamchatka (UTC+12). That is a larger spread than the entire contiguous United States, Europe, and China combined.
Related pages
- Current time in Russia — live clocks for every major city and the interactive map
- Moscow Time (MSK, UTC+3) — the reference zone for the whole country
- Time Zone Converter — convert any time across all 11 zones
- DST in Russia — why Russian clocks stopped changing in 2014
- Vladivostok Time (UTC+10) and Kamchatka Time (UTC+12) — the Pacific end of the country