With the collaps of the Soviet Union, the Russian mining company was not supported sufficiently anymore to maintain both settlements, so Pyramiden was closed in autumn 1998. Already the first winter ruined most of the pipe systems by frost.
After the evacuation, the Pyramiden Hotel was seasonally opened again on an improvised basis for the summers of 1999 and 2000, almost only used by the hiking groups of our sister company Spitsbergen Tours, but cooperation with the general director of the Russian mining company at that time became increasingly impossible, and by end of 2000, it was clear that also the hotel would close permanently, leaving Pyramiden as a ghost town except of a small salvaging force, which extracted reusable or sellable (metal scrap) materials during summers. 
Only since the following general director of the Russian mining company from 2007 onwards, there are serious attempts to stop the decay and to revitalize Pyramiden at least on a minimal scale, first of all with tourism, possibly in combination with some research. Since summer 2009, a small new container base installed in the port is available as accomodation for visitors, again, and Spitsbergen Tours renewed its tradition from up to 2000 of being the main user of Pyramiden for regular longer touristic overnight stays, standing for 80 % of all nights in Pyramiden in summer 2009.
Since 2013, also the Pyramiden Hotel is opened again seasonally, and a northernmost campsite was installed on the former gravel area behind the hotel.
However, a lot of problems from developing a convincing concept to legal questions and the problem of reliable transports still has to be solved for reaching an economically level of touristic activity only to cover the basic costs of running such a remote base. On the other hand: the costs can hardly be higher than the current subsidies for running the other Russian settlement Barentsburg with hardly any income from mining at all since years, but a work force of about 400 people based there.