Hi Hueyman, good for you. I've flown the MTV quite a bit back in the '90's and they are amazing helicopters. Far superior to Western helicopters in their class. Might look ugly but man, do they perform. They are the most reliable helicopter I've ever flown. I started a company in South Africa back then and we had 24 of them but it was impossible to work with the Russians, so that would be my take on why you don't see many in the West.
And Jim, they don't crash because of the machine, they crash because their Russian pilots do crazy stuff. It was a constant battle to stop them killing you all the time. It was like someone flicked a switch in the pilots head and then the craziness started. And all of the pilots that I knew had more than 15,000 hours but they still did crazy stuff when you least expected it.
Good luck Hueyman, it's going to be hard to get a gig but well worth it if you do.