[tz] Why did you rename Russian zone name abbreviations

[Paul Eggert]

On 11/03/2016 08:27 AM, Alexander Belopolsky wrote:
> Isn't this problem worse with the UTC offset?

Only if one assumes that a time zone abbreviation reflects the user's 
location, so that VLAT means "Vladivostok time, whatever that happens to 
be". In English the usual assumption is that a time zone abbreviation 
reflects the user's UTC offset, so that CST means "US Central Standard 
Time, 6 hours behind UTC", even if one's location is Mérida (which is 
not in the central US or even in central North America). A numeric 
abbreviation matches this usual assumption better than VLAT does.