Goodbye Samara

A bit shaky following a breakneck drive to the airport, my driver explaining as we go the bitterness he feels towards Moscow for forcing Samara to lose the special time zone it previously shared with about one other city:

"So is the change going to move Samara east or west?"
"What?"
"Will you get longer evenings or earlier mornings?"
"Oh, I don't know, but it was much better before!"

They had my name on a piece of paper to tick me off as I went through security: the (clearly busy) evening shift had in all I think three sheets. Check-in followed a rigorous security procedure which forced me to take my shoes off but missed my full bottle of water, and then it was televised clips of animals playing before the flight back to Moscow.