Rah Rah Rasputin; Boney M to play in Georgia/Ossetia border town

The government of Georgia has hired disco icons Boney M in a campaign to win the hearts and minds of the people from the separatist region of South Ossetia.

The group — which hit it big during the 1970s and 1980s withsmash singlessuch as Rasputin, Brown Girl In The Ring, Daddy Cool, Painter Man and Rivers of Babylon — will play a concert Saturday night in a border village within walking distance of South Ossetia's rebel capital, Tskhinvali.

South Ossetia broke away from Georgia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Rebels want to join the Russian Federation.

Georgian authorities have drafted Boney M for the event in Tamarasheni, a village of 500 people, to show the South Ossetians that life would be better if they returned to the fold.

It also remains to be seen which members of Boney M will be performing. The quartet split in the mid-1980s and two bands perform under the same name, led by singers from the original group.

Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili is putting money into Tamarasheni to taunt the rebels, who are said to receive covert financial support from Russia.

The village suffers regular gun battles between Georgian forces and separatist rebels.

Checkpoints surround the town. Russian peacekeeping troops are the only buffer between the village and the rebel capital.

Under Soviet rule, Boney M was one of the few Western groups that government authorities approved of.