[tz] Simferopol switch near 2014-03-30

[Tim Parenti]

On Wed, 3 Jul 2019 at 04:43, Michael H Deckers via tz <tz at iana.org> wrote:

>      tzdb currently has the switch in Simferopol from
>      2014-03-30T02:00 to 04:00, following the announcement in
>      [https://vz.ru/news/2014/3/17/677464.html] from 2014-03-17.
>
>      But the clocks of the main station shown in the video at
>      [https://www.rt.com/news/crimea-clocks-moscow-time-173/]
>      advance from 22:00 to 00:00. If this is not a fake, the
>      switch happened 4 hours earlier.


This apparent discrepancy in reporting was discussed contemporaneously
on-list and is already noted in commentary.
https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2014-March/020814.html
https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/tz/2014-March/020815.html

Specifically:

# Simferopol and Sevastopol reportedly changed their central town clocks
> # late the previous day, but this appears to have been ceremonial
> # and the discrepancies are small enough to not worry about.


As it so happens, the RT article you linked confirms that particular
perspective — that the 22:00 transition was merely "ceremonial" and that
the 02:00 transition was official — more clearly than we had identified at
the time.  Quoting the article:

…the hands of the main railway station clock in the city of Simferopol
> jumped from 10 pm to 12 am on Saturday. […] The ceremony follows the
> region’s formal joining the Russian Federation on March 21. Other Crimeans,
> apart from Simferopol, the region’s capital, were expected to switch their
> clocks at 2:00 am on Sunday, AFP reported.


It appears India's *Business Standard* also contemporaneously reported the
same, at
https://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/crimea-to-set-clocks-to-russia-time-114033000014_1.html
:

…a symbolic ceremony will be held to move the clocks forward at the railway
> station in the main city of Simferopol.  The Black Sea peninsula's prime
> minister Sergei Aksyonov will oversee the switch at 10pm (midnight Moscow,
> 2000 GMT).  Europeans and ordinary Crimeans make the daylight savings time
> switch at 2am tomorrow.


Since the zone is meant to represent the region as a whole, and not
necessarily one or two clocks in the town squares in the representative
city, this is why we settled on 2014-03-30 02:00 for the transition.

--
Tim Parenti
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