President Dmitry Medvedev wants Russia to observe daylight-saving time year-round.
Under Medvedev’s idea, the country will move its clocks forward one hour at the end of March as is done in Western Europe. But when European clocks fall back in the autumn, Russia’s will stay where they are.
Medvedev said Tuesday that moving the clock back adversely affects some people and is a burden on farmers. Opponents of summer time in other countries argue that advancing the clocks causes the same problems.
“The need to adapt is connected to stress and illnesses,” Medvedev said at a meeting with laureates of the presidential award for science and innovations, adding that canceling the switch would be useful.
Medvedev’s aide Arkady Dvorkovich said later the same day that the change will be introduced by a governmental degree, which is to be passed shortly, Interfax reported.
Russia is scheduled to change to daylight-saving time on March 27 this year.
The move is Medvedev’s second attempt to control time. He already cut the number of time zones from 11 to nine.
Medvedev also called for a program for moon and deep-space exploration and spoke in favor of creating a cable television channel for popular science, a project announced by the VGTRK broadcasting company last month.
(AP, Interfax, MT)
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