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Mon 12 Dec 2008Conflict revives Cold War memories
GEORGIA:THE WEEK-LONG conflict between Georgia and Russia felt like a throwback to the Balkan wars of the 1990s. Once again, drunken irregulars in balaclavas robbed refugees and journalists at gunpoint, torched villages and allegedly raped women, on the fringes of Europe.
On August 11th, three days after the conflict started, someone at Mtsekheta, 20km north of the capital Tbilisi, mistook fleeing Georgian troops for Russians. Cold War memories - of Prague in 1968 and Budapest in 1956 - resurfaced, and the panicked residents of the capital prepared for an imminent Russian arrival.
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