MOSCOW, January 16. /TASS/. Widening the application of robotics in Russia will not exacerbate unemployment but, on the contrary, will spur on an increase of wages, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday at a plenary session of the Gaidar Forum conference in Moscow.

"Automation and application of robotics can play a very encouraging role for the market in this case [in Russia’s conditions]," he said. "While having no impact on unemployment, this will set the conditions for greater labor productivity and for viable wage increases."

Most typically, a rise in unemployment is viewed as an inevitable consequence of introducing robotics, Medvedev noted. "Yet unemployment isn’t the only possible result," he said. "For instance, new technologies can help make up for the shortage of industrial personnel in countries that this shortage pertains to."

"Russia is bound to experience these problems [personnel shortages] in the future because of a drop in the birth rate," he explained.

Medvedev recalled Karl Marx, who said technological progress had brought about a reduction of work hours.

"Along with it, the requirements for qualifications will grow and labor itself will become a more creative and interesting sphere," Medvedev stressed. "Taxation and civil laws will transform and these changes may embrace others spheres of activity over time, including criminal legislation and the code of practice."