Medvedev's Russia summertime switch set to end Published duration 20 September 2012

image caption The changes could be approved this autumn, MPs say

Russia is expected to reverse a reform brought in last year by ex-president Dmitry Medvedev to reduce the stress of changing the clocks.

His answer was for permanent summer time, with darker mornings during the winter but lighter afternoons.

But many Russians complained they saw even less daylight than before and were constantly tired.

Now a bill has been proposed to turn back the clock and re-introduce daylight saving.

After the former president introduced the reform in 2011, Russia was almost alone in Northern Europe in not putting its clocks back an hour last October.

His argument was that daylight saving caused unnecessary stress and there was public support for the change.

But after months of the capital staying dark well into the morning, many Muscovites were left longing for a return to daylight saving and Mr Medvedev's successor as president, Vladimir Putin, made clear that he had no interest in keeping the change in place.

"Something might not have been thought through," Mr Putin told Interfax earlier this year.

Another unpopular change was the reduction of Russia's time zones from 11 to nine.

Now the head of the Russian lower house of parliament's healthcare committee, Sergei Kalashnikov, has put forward a proposal to reinstate the 11 time zones and turn back the clocks by an hour in winter.

The bill could be approved in time for the clocks to go back this autumn, MPs say.

The committee's deputy chairman, Oleg Kulikov, said that the change would enable most of Russia to have a morning with daylight.

"It's comfortable and easier to get up," he told Ria Novosti.