MOSCOW, July 22 (RAPSI) - President Vladimir Putin signed a daylight savings time bill into law, according to a statement from the official website of legal information.

Under the bill, “Moscow time” would be designated as Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) plus three hours, and time zones in Russia would be based on UTC time zones.

On April 23, the State Duma resolved to petition Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to restore daylight savings time in Russia within 30 days. On May 25, the deputy prime minister responsible for this issue in the government, Arkady Dvorkovich, said they needed two or three months to discuss the issue with the regions before making a decision.

The transition to and from daylight savings was cancelled in the summer of 2011 at the initiative of then President Dmitry Medvedev. At that time, 73% of Russians supported the idea. Russia is now on daylight savings time year round, which is two hours ahead of astronomical time. However, public opinion has changed, and as of late 2013 only 32% of Russians supported year-round DST.