[tz] Crimea to switch to Moscow Time as of March 30, 2014

[Paul Eggert]

On 03/17/2014 11:41 AM, Julian Cable wrote:
> This suggest we should have not Europe/Simferopol but Ukraine/Simferopol and
> Russia/Simferopol.


We are not a political body and do not have the resources to deal with 
political disputes.  That's why the tz database prefers more-neutral 
names like 'Europe/Simferopol', which (thank goodness) is the name the 
tz database is already using and which will be unaffected by the 
forseeable political changes in Crimea. At this point we should be 
thanking our lucky stars that the name is *not* Ukraine/Simferopol (or 
USSR/Simferopol or Russia/Simferopol or ...).  Let's not mess with success.

As for whether zone.tab should say UA or RU for Simferopol, we don't 
have the resources to arbitrate disputes like that either. If this turns 
into a real dispute that starts taking up our resources, then we'll need 
to change zone.tab's format so that it is less of a political 
flashpoint.  This will entail some technical conversion hassles, but in 
the long run that'll less work for us and for our users than the 
neverending political hassles.