All year winter arrives in Siberia as Russia reverts to 11 time zones from Pacific to Baltic

Siberia and the Russian Far East became 'bigger' early on Sunday as it got a new time zone, as most Russians wound gtheir clocks back an hour to mark the beginning of a single all-year time. A new zone on the Pacific fringe means that Kamchatka Territory and Chukotka Autonomous Area are now nine hours  ahead of Moscow, instead of eight, as before. 

Kemerevo region also did not put its clocks back as it switched from being three hours ahead of Moscow to four. The move changes the previous system - enacted by premier Dmitry Medvedev when he was president - of 'permanent summer time', which operated for three years.

In future, Russia will be on 'permanent winter time'.

The number of time zones  rises to 11, with the Udmurtian Republic and Samara Region setting their clocks to one hour ahead of Moscow, which is three hours ahead of GMT. They also did not change their clocks on Sunday. 

Russia's restored regions of Crimea and Sevastopol are on the same time zone as Moscow. The changes were made by popular demand after the 'permanent summer time' experiment left children going to school in darkness in the winter. 

Polls by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) showed that while in February 2011 some 73 percent of Russians favoured permanent summer time, in the autumn 2011- after they experienced it - only 32 percent supported the reform.

Doctors say the switch will positively affect the health of Russians, however it will take about two weeks for people to adapt to a new regime, explained RIA Novosti. 'Dark mornings have a worse effect on people's state of health than dark evenings,' the head of sleep medicine at the Federal Medical and Biological Agency, Alexander Kalinkin, told TASS state news agency.