Current Time in Moscow
Russia — Europe/Moscow
About Time in Moscow
Moscow operates on Moscow Standard Time (IANA: Europe/Moscow) at UTC+3 year-round. Russia abolished daylight saving time in 2011, initially moving to permanent summer time (UTC+4), but then switched to permanent standard time (UTC+3) in 2014. Moscow no longer changes its clocks.
Moscow is 8 hours ahead of New York during EST and 7 hours ahead during EDT. It is 3 hours ahead of London during GMT and 2 hours ahead during BST. Moscow is 6 hours behind Tokyo. The fixed UTC+3 offset means that Moscow's time difference with DST-observing countries changes twice a year, even though Moscow's own clocks never move.
Russia spans 11 time zones (from UTC+2 in Kaliningrad to UTC+12 in Kamchatka), and Moscow Time serves as the reference for the entire country. Russian Railways schedules all trains in Moscow Time regardless of the local timezone of departure or arrival, meaning a passenger boarding a Trans-Siberian train in Vladivostok (UTC+10) still sees Moscow Time on the timetable. This practice, while sometimes confusing for travelers, simplifies scheduling across the world's largest country.
Time Facts
Russian Railways uses Moscow Time for all schedules nationwide — so a train departing Vladivostok at '2:00 PM' on the timetable is actually leaving at 9:00 PM local time (UTC+10), since Vladivostok is 7 hours ahead of Moscow.
Russia eliminated DST in 2011, moved to permanent UTC+4 (summer time), then reversed course in 2014 to permanent UTC+3 — the country found that permanent summer time made winter mornings unbearably dark in the capital.
Moscow's Kremlin Clock, atop the Spassky Tower, has chimed the hours since the 17th century and is synchronized to Russian national time standards maintained by VNIIFTRI, the Russian metrological institute.
Moscow's position at UTC+3 means it has no overlap with US West Coast business hours — when it is 5 PM in Moscow, it is 6 AM in San Francisco, making real-time collaboration between the two cities extremely difficult.
Business Hours
Standard business hours in Moscow are 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM MSK (06:00-15:00 UTC), with many businesses and government offices operating until 7:00 PM.