English: Source: official data of Russian Federal State Statistics Service, document on Russian Socio-economic indicators of the Russian Federation in 1991-2016 / Социально-экономические показатели Российской Федерации в 1991-2016гг. on FSSS site

After the destruction of the USSR, the enterprises became owned by new owners who were not interested in preserving the life and health of workers. They did not spend money on equipment modernization, and the share of harmful workplaces increased. The state did not interfere in this, and sometimes it helped employers.

At first, the process of growth was slow - due to the fact that in the 1990s this was compensated by mass de-industrialization (factories with foundries and other harmful types of production were closed). In the 2000s, this method of restraining the growth of the share of harmful workplaces was exhausted.

Therefore, in 2010s the Ministry of Labor adopted the law 426-FZ, which equated the issuance of personal protective equipment to the employee to real improvement of working conditions; and the Ministry of Health has amended the methods of risk assessment in the workplace. This explains the "decline" in the proportion of workers working in harmful conditions after 2014 - it happened not in practice, but only on paper.