How many time zones does Russia span?
Guess before you scroll — the answer is below
The answer
11 time zones
Russia spans 11 time zones, more than any other country. Flying from Kaliningrad on the Baltic coast to Kamchatka in the Far East crosses the same longitudinal spread as the distance from London to Tokyo. Russia briefly cut down to 9 zones in 2010 before restoring the full 11 in 2014.
How to get close to this number
Estimate from longitude. The country stretches across roughly a third of the planet's circumference, and a time zone is fifteen degrees of longitude. A third of three hundred and sixty degrees divided by fifteen gives around eleven, and the arithmetic beats recalling the figure.
The comparison in the explanation is the one that conveys it: the flight from one end to the other covers the same longitudinal spread as London to Tokyo. A single domestic flight crossing as many meridians as an intercontinental one is a scale of country that has no equivalent.
The 2010 reduction and 2014 restoration are worth knowing, because they show that time zones are political rather than astronomical. A government can decide a region uses a different clock, and several have — China runs on one zone across a span that would justify five. Longitude sets the maximum; policy sets the actual number.
Where this number comes from
| Source | TimeAndDate.com, citing Russian federal law |
|---|---|
| Figure refers to | 2024 |
| Last checked | |
| Unit | time zones |
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