Russia Is Asleep and Awake at the Same Time

Russia spans 11 time zones, UTC+2 to UTC+12: when Moscow strikes midnight, Kamchatka is already at 09:00. So its New Year arrives 11 times, from 12:00 to 22:00 UTC on 31 December. Kazakhstan has used one zone since March 2024. France has 12. Russia: Kaliningrad UTC+2 → Kamchatka UTC+12, 11 zones in a row. France: Paris plus Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, Mayotte, Kerguelen, New Caledonia, Wallis, Tahiti, the Marquesas, the Gambier Islands and Clipperton = 12 (13 if you count Adélie Land in Antarctica). How it was counted: the distinct standard UTC offsets each country and its territories use in the IANA time zone database; uninhabited Clipperton has no entry of its own and is added at UTC−8. Day and night on the map are the sun's real position at each moment shown. Crimea is shown as part of Ukraine. How many time zones does YOUR country have? 👇 Earth images: NASA Blue Marble and Black Marble. Borders: Natural Earth.