The Kremlin is dreaming of mass replacement of Russians with robots: what do they want to achieve

The Russian government is coming up with new ideas to overcome the labor shortage in Russia. Recent initiatives include replacing employees with robots, which will also save on wages. However, given the actual volume of robots in use in Russia, this plan does not look very realistic.

Russian media have reported this. The solution to the problem of the shortage of workers by replacing them with robots was proposed directly by the Kremlin, as stated by the deputy head of the presidential administration, assistant to dictator Vladimir Putin, Maxim Oreshkin.

This initiative is another Putin's whim. Back in the summer, the Kremlin leader demanded that Russia "as soon as possible" enter the top 25 countries in the world in terms of robot use.

It should be understood that there are currently about 19 robots per 10,000 industrial workers in Russia. For comparison, the leaders in this indicator are South Korea (1,012 robots), Singapore (730 robots), and Germany (415 robots).

"Robotization is a direct way to overcome the shortage of personnel that affects all industries," Oreshkin said. He believes that robots should be used primarily in logistics, storage, and sorting.

The official also touched upon the issue of business savings. According to him, automation will become more and more profitable as wages grow rapidly. In addition, companies in Russia are also granted tax benefits for "hiring" robots.

Russia faced a shortage of employees after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the resulting mobilization and mass emigration. According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, 70% of enterprises in the aggressor country are experiencing a shortage of workers. This means that the issue is acute.

That is why robots instead of people are not the only option being discussed to overcome the staff shortage. For example, the State Duma is once again proposing to introduce a childlessness tax, as in the USSR. This idea is being actively promoted, in particular, by State Duma deputy Andrei Gurulev. According to him, the money from the childlessness tax could be used to modernize orphanages.

In the Soviet era, childless men between the ages of 20 and 50 and childless married women between the ages of 20 and 45 had to pay 6% of their salary to the state. No tax was levied on earnings of less than 70 rubles.

Earlier, it was also reported that the State Duma of the Russian Federation began consideration of a document banning child labor in Russia. Russian lawmakers propose to punish the "propaganda" of this idea with a fine of up to 5 million rubles (more than 52 thousand dollars and about 2 million UAH).

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