Georgia abandoning Soviet-era decree time, back to zonal time

[Todd C. Miller]

Reported to me by Peter Galbavy <peter.galbavy at knowtion.net> Diff
follows the article below (hopefully I got it right).

 - todd

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=983466&PageNum=0

Georgia abandoning Soviet-era decree time, back to zonal time

27.06.2004, 02.36

TBILISI, June 27 (Itar-Tass) - Georgia is abandoning the Soviet-era
special, or decreed, time and is switching back to its zonal time
as of Sunday, June 27.

In practical terms, this means that it will now have the same time
as Russias Moscow zone and will be three hours ahead of London
instead of the former four hours, and two hours ahead of Paris and
Berlin instead of the former three.

The reverting to the zonal time follows a recent decree by President
Mikhail Saakashvili saying the decision on it was taken with due
regard of Georgias geographic position, the European integration
process, and proposals by the national department for standards and
hydrometeorology.

The so-called decreed time took effect all across the former USSR
from Kamchatka through to Belarus and from the Artic Islands through
to southern Turkmenistan June 16, 1930.

The measure was aimed at a better us of daylight.

Unlike daylight saving time (DST), the decreed time did not shift
and was pegged on the principle of zonal time plus an hour round
the year.

As of 1981, however, the DST was also introduced in the USSR, which
meant that from April through October the formula would look like
the zonal time plus one hour of the decreed time plus one hour of
the DST.

Most countries of the former USSR dropped the decreed timed by now
and reverted to their zonal time. Russia is one of a few exceptions.

Index: asia
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvs/src/share/zoneinfo/datfiles/asia,v
retrieving revision 1.18
diff -u -r1.18 asia
--- asia	28 Jun 2004 13:43:32 -0000	1.18
+++ asia	28 Jun 2004 14:02:18 -0000
@@ -336,6 +336,10 @@
 # Instead of putting back clocks at the end of October, Georgia
 # will stay on daylight savings time this winter to save energy,
 # President Eduard Shevardnadze decreed Wednesday.
+#
+# From Peter Galbavy <peter.galbavy at knowtion.net> (2004-060-27)
+# Georgia has changed its time zone back to that of Moscow today.
+# It is now just four hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (instead of five).
 # Zone	NAME		GMTOFF	RULES	FORMAT	[UNTIL]
 Zone	Asia/Tbilisi	2:59:16 -	LMT	1880
 			2:59:16	-	TBMT	1924 May  2 # Tbilisi Mean Time
@@ -346,7 +350,8 @@
 			3:00 E-EurAsia	GE%sT	1994 Sep lastSun
 			4:00 E-EurAsia	GE%sT	1996 Oct lastSun
 			4:00	1:00	GEST	1997 Mar lastSun
-			4:00 E-EurAsia	GE%sT
+			4:00 E-EurAsia	GE%sT	2004 Jun 26
+			3:00 RussiaAsia GE%sT
 
 # East Timor