MOSCOW, March 28. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia's Red Square and the Kremlin will go dark for 60 minutes on Saturday evening to mark Earth Hour, the global climate change event organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Lights will go out at 8.30pm in Moscow, as local clocks will do at their same time across the globe, the Russia president’s press service announced on Friday.
More than 300 landmarks in Russia’s capital will join the world's largest celebration of the planet. St. Basil’s Cathedral, GUM State Department Store, the Russian White House government building, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the State Duma building and Moscow State University will be among them.
Earth Hour was established by the World Wildlife Fund in 2007 to encourage households and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour to raise awareness of climate change severity. Since then, the cause has escalated to include more than 150 countries and countless landmarks.
Two billion people, 7,000 participating cities across the globe and 16 million Russians joined the event last year. Russia first took part in Earth Hour in 2008. Red Square and the Kremlin joined in for the first time in 2013.