No one on this thread seems to care... But there was a reason. On paper the Russian Helicopters were going to be better for the hot and high conditions in Afghanistan. Helicopters have a really hard time there. It is just so hot and so high altitude they can’t generate much lift. So they tried to go with a copter with more lift. Turned out to be unmaintainable. No strange conspiracy theories needed.
Talon, thank you for clarifying.
there you go confusing people with facts.