On Fri, Feb 12, 2016, at 16:53, Paul Eggert wrote:
In the tz database, rather than give the new zone an invented abbreviation like "ASTT" that does not correspond to existing practice, I'd like to get out of the name-inventing business and just use "+04".
AFAIK, Russian actual existing practice is to name relative to _Moscow_ time - I'd argue it should be MSK+1, and that all other Russian zones should be renamed likewise. AIUI historically the tz project has been hesitant to use names of the form [Name][+/-][Number] (such as UTC+04) because of the theory that someone might try to paste it directly into their timezone (the result of which is a timezone called UTC with offset -04:00)... maybe it should be re-examined whether this is sensible in today's environment.