My numerous beefs with the template:
Poor coding
Clear:right; is preferable to unnecessary line breaks
a single text-align:center;" is preferable to repeating needlessly align=center for every cell
A width definition is preferable to margins, and more commona cross wikipedia.
there is absolutely no need to have the comment be inserted in every page as it is specifically intended only for the template page.

There is no apparent reason to have a category in the template. the category would be just as well put independantly.
The link in the header was misleading as implying an article limited to western Russia. Unless Kremlin actually is, but I doubt that, and can't really tell anyway.
No background color in the header, unlike 90% of wikipedia footers
Picture enlarging header unnecesssarily, at the very least it should be reduced and move in the content section of the footer.
80% is unnecearily small for a simple footer like this. Most wikipedia footers do very well with 90%

Now I'd like to know why you reverted the entire thing (including a totally legit categorization uunder category:Russian navigational boxes) instead of just adjusting what you weren't happy with (which appears to me to be only the comment's location and the image).