Honestly, I would avoid remakes. I've went down this road many time. Making your own map is the best way to improve your design skills and tbh isn't as tenuous as you might think. Iteration is key and quite frankly, remakes really hold this back.
Blockout -> Test -> Iterate -> Test -> Iterate -> Test -> Finalize -> Ship
The more you do these steps the more efficient and better you become.
If you like certain aspects of russka, why not implement iterations into your own designs?
On a side note, who's to say Brute isn't working on Russka? The only issues he's had about remakes are with FMPONE, still worth a shot to try and contact him.