it includes many informations not normally found in infoboxes, and are probably better presented in the lede
"Administrative center of", is probably already specified in the first few words of the article
automatically transcludes a large amount of 'citation needed' tags for facts that are either trivial or unlikely to be challenged
references are also used quite liberally, Vladivostok provides an example of this: the location of the city within the Primorsky Krai is made self-evident by the location map. This extensive use of references to verify patently accurate informations only contributes to the visual clutter.
it's too complex considering that it handles just over 1,000 articles. the main template is 25k in size and it calls another 30kb template just to determine the correct location map
2002 census stats: removing them creates a glaring "Cite error" in some pages. This should be fixed in the corresponding articles rather than in the template (we can't keep the 2002 figures forever).
overlinking of simple English words (flag, capital, etc)
the right image maps, location maps and time zones for the article should be fetched by using the OKATO codes
...
Missing maps: Buryat Republic, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, Sakha (Yakutia) Republic, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug
