Kazakhstan zones

[Oscar van Vlijmen]

I found more concrete evidence:
http://eng.gazeta.kz/art.asp?aid=47715

If I'm reading it right, the article says that the UTC+4 / UTC+6 division is
the eastern border of the Aktobe province (Aktyubinskaya Oblast').

The article says amongst others: "... in the west of Kazakhstan there will
be the Astana time plus 2 hours".

I think "minus 2"?

In my interpretation this means that the following provinces are on UTC+4:

Zapadnyj Kazakhstan/Ural'skaya Oblast'
Mangistauskaya Oblast'
Aktyubinskaya Oblast' (Aqtöbe)
Atyrauskaya Oblast'/Gur'yevskaya Oblast'

And on UTC+6 the rest:

Almatinskaya Oblast'
Akmolinskaya Oblast'/Tselinogradskaya Oblast'
Zhambylskaya Oblast'
Karagandinskaya Oblast'
Kustanayskaya Oblast'
Kzyl-Ordinskaya Oblast'
Yuzhnyj Kazakhstan/Chimkentskaya Oblast'
Pavlodarskaya Oblast'
Severnyj Kazakhstan
Vostochnyj Kazakhstan

Mentioned article also infers when the transition took place: at the moments
of DST switch. Some provinces stayed on summertime UTC+6 (Kostanai and
Kyzylorda), another province (Aktobe) didn't go to (the now abolished?)
summertime and stayed on UTC+5.

So, if I'm reading the last statements in the article correctly, they imply
UTC+5 and UTC+6 time zones.
In the beginning of the article however it is clearly stated that Kazakhstan
"is situated in the fourth and fifth time zones in relation with Greenwich".
HELP!!


Oscar van Vlijmen
2005-05-13