Current time in Moscow, Russia
The current local time in Moscow is shown below. Moscow observes MSK.
Daylight saving time
Moscow does not observe daylight saving time. The local offset is fixed year-round.
Sunrise & sunset today
Timezone facts
- Timezone
- Europe/Moscow
- Standard abbreviation
- MSK
- Observes daylight saving
- No
- Country
- 🇷🇺 Russia
- Business hours
- 09:00 – 18:00 local
Moscow in context
Moscow is the capital and largest city of Russia, sitting on the Moskva River in the European western portion of the country, around 700 kilometres west of the Ural Mountains. The city proper holds around 13 million residents within its expanded post-2012 boundaries, with the wider metropolitan area reaching above 21 million. The medieval Kremlin and Red Square anchor the centre, with the Stalin-era seven sisters skyscrapers and modern Moscow City financial district forming distinctive outer landmarks.
Timezone history of Moscow
Russia spans eleven timezones, more than any other country, with Moscow Time at UTC+3 serving as the western anchor and zones extending to UTC+12 in Kamchatka in the far east. Daylight saving was abolished across the country in 2011 by presidential decree, with Russia held on permanent summer time for a year before the offsets were rolled back in 2014 to settle on the current year-round arrangement. The result is that Moscow sits three hours ahead of London in winter and only two hours ahead in summer.
Working hours in Moscow
Moscow working hours follow a conventional 09:00 to 18:00 pattern with an hour for lunch, though heavy traffic and metro commutes shape effective availability. The Russian public holiday calendar concentrates closures around the New Year, with the official holiday running from 1 to 8 January and incorporating Orthodox Christmas on 7 January, when much of the city pauses for an extended winter break. International Women's Day on 8 March and the May holidays around Labour Day and Victory Day on 9 May produce two further significant clusters of closures.