Planet Earth moves in an orbit near the Sun, which heats the planet, gives the necessary light to plants and living things, depending on photosynthesis. But the Sun hides behind the horizon from time to time, then reappears. And even the day when it shines is not the same everywhere. In one place of the planet the Sun is at its zenith, in another it tends to the horizon.
Planet time zone system
To accurately account for time, humanity had to divide the Earth's surface into time zones. These are zones that correspond to 1/24 (in the number of hours in a day) parallel lengths at one or another latitude. Less common are zones with a difference of thirty minutes in relation to the neighboring belt. Below is a table of world time zones and the difference with Moscow. The reference time is the time zone of the Greenwich Observatory in the UK.
In Russia, as the largest country in the world, there are eleven such time zones. The countdown starts from the westernmost point, Kaliningrad, continues to Moscow, where the time difference with Greenwich is three hours. In Magadan, the easternmost time zone, the difference with Greenwich is already twelve hours.
Time Zone Overview of Time Zones
A table of time zone differences between the world and Moscow will show how large the distances are on the Earth and how different the time of day can be even within the same country. Each time zone has its own name. In the table of time zones of the world, taking into account the time difference with Moscow, time zones are also reflected, where the time difference is not even an hour, but half. This is due to the historical features of state borders and time tracking.
Time difference between world time zones and MoscowTimezone | Where applicable (main points) | Difference with Moscow |
-12 | | -fifteen |
-eleven | Samoa | -14 |
-10 | Aleutian Islands | -thirteen |
-9 | Alaska | -12 |
-8 | California | -eleven |
-7 | Arizona | -10 |
-6 | Central America | -9 |
-5 | Cuba | -8 |
-4 | Venezuela | -7 |
-3: 30 | Newfoundland | -6: 30 |
-3 | Brazil | -6 |
-2 | Atlantic Ocean | -5 |
-1 | Azores | -4 |
0 | Great Britain | -3 |
+1 | Western Europe | -2 |
+2 | Eastern Europe | -1 |
+3 | Russia | 0 |
3:30 | Iran | +0: 30 |
+4 | Azerbaijan | +1 |
+4: 30 | Afghanistan | +1: 30 |
+5 | Kazakhstan | +2 |
+5: 30 | India | +2: 30 |
+5: 45 | Nepal | +2: 45 |
+6 | Bangladesh | +3 |
+6: 30 | Myanmar | 3:30 |
+7 | Mongolia | +4 |
+8 | China | +5 |
+8: 30 | DPRK | +5: 30 |
+8: 45 | Australia | +5: 45 |
+9 | Japan | +6 |
+9: 30 | Australia | +6: 30 |
+10 | Papua New Guinea | +7 |
+10: 30 | Australia | +7:30 |
+11 | Solomon islands | +8 |
+12 | Marshall Islands | +9 |
+12: 45 | New Zealand | +9: 45 |
+13 | Kiribati | +10 |
+14 | Kiribati | +11 |
Line where dates change
As can be seen from the table of the difference in time zones of the world with Moscow, there are also such subtleties as the time difference of 24 hours in areas that are several kilometers from each other. For example, residents of the Magadan Region, whose clock is twelve o’clock in the afternoon, on the first of January can look through the binoculars last year, since Alaska will be on the thirty-first of December. Between time zones with time UTC + 12 and UTC-12 there is a line separating the dates. The table of time zone differences between the world and Moscow shows the deviation from Moscow time +8 and -15 hours, respectively. Traveling through the line of changing dates from west to east, you can get to an already lived day, returning from east to west - to get to the future for one day.
Time Zone Features
Theoretically, time zones should be as flat as the Earth’s meridians. But this is not so. You can’t make half a city or region live one time, and half another. For a single integrated economic and territorial system, synchronized operation is important, therefore, in the framework of small states, groups of islands in the ocean, the time zone either expands or narrows, repeating the administrative boundaries of the territories. In addition to such deviations, there is a separate group of territories where the time deviation from the neighboring time zone is thirty or even forty-five minutes. These zones are also indicated in the table of the time zone difference between the world and Moscow. Such time zones have developed historically, they are not related to the astronomy of a particular region.

In addition to regions with their non-standard standard time, above 60 degrees north latitude, time zones do not follow natural formal boundaries, as they are less populated and in these latitudes the lighting conditions are not the same as in Moscow. There are already beginning phenomena such as polar day and polar night.
Russia time zones: features
The table of time differences between the time zones of the world and Moscow shows that Russia occupies a significant number of time zones, as many as eleven. Despite the reforms and time zone adjustments, their number will always be eleven, as this is an astronomically necessary necessity. But timezone boundaries are constantly changing. In modern Russia, they are tied to economically closed administrative formations, regions, territories, for which work in a single temporary space is important. Time zones are not just lines on a map. Compliance with standard time when calculating energy savings yields enormous numbers. If the time zone of the Moscow region is even one hour, then the whole country will lose billions of rubles. Because the indicated difference of the time zones of the world with Moscow in the table is just useful information. In the modern world, dials with Moscow time hang on all world exchanges to correctly synchronize trading on these exchanges.

Why you need to know the time of another time zone
In modern Russia, which is closely integrated into the global economy, knowledge of time zones is important in every industry. Tables of the difference of time zones of the world with Moscow for some professions are a reference book. Numerous purchasing managers working with Chinese suppliers understand that calling Shanghai at the end of a business day in Moscow is stupid, as China is already deep in the night. And to call the United States at the beginning of Moscow working day is also not worth it. There are many amazing things on planet Earth, and such as time zones, a date line, etc., only emphasize the uniqueness and complexity of life dictated by global astronomical phenomena. Such as the movement of the Earth relative to the Sun and the height of geographical latitude, which underlie the calculation of time by all mankind.