Yes, it's called Автопилот - we should get used to the russian :D
It has four channels, pretty same as BS have.
...and yes, with stabilisation on it is logicaly more stable than Huey
Don't worry, most of them are cicruit breakers, you turn them on during the startup and leave them there for the rest of the flight.
I saw RL Mi-17 flight manual today and everything looks pretty easy, logical and straightforward. Many cockpit procedures are quite similar to BS :book: