MSK — Moscow Standard Time

Moscow Standard Time (MSK) is three hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time and is the time zone used in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and much of western Russia. As the time zone of Russia's capital and its political, economic, and cultural center, MSK serves as the reference point for Russia's vast system of eleven time zones stretching from Kaliningrad (UTC+2) to Kamchatka (UTC+12).

Russia has a complicated history with daylight saving time and time zone changes. In 2011, Russia abolished the biannual clock change and moved permanently to "summer time" (UTC+4 for Moscow). However, this proved unpopular because it meant extremely late sunrises in winter, and in 2014 Russia switched back to permanent "winter time," fixing Moscow at UTC+3 year-round. This means MSK does not observe daylight saving time.

Moscow Standard Time is also used by Belarus, which adopted UTC+3 permanently in 2011, and by parts of Turkey's eastern border region. Russian train schedules were historically displayed in Moscow time regardless of the local time zone, a practice that continued until 2018 when Russia began transitioning to local time displays at stations.