title: git svn clone: branches moved from repo/ to repo/branches/ and "Malformed XML: no element found"
body: <p>With git 2.8.2 and svn 1.9.4 under Cygwin, when cloning our repository with <code>git svn clone</code>, I hit a brick-wall at a certain commit:</p>
  
  <pre><code>r3640 = eb94... (refs/remotes/svn/trunk)
  Found possible branch point: https://.../repo/&lt;branchname&gt; =&gt; https://.../repo/branches/&lt;branchname&gt;, 3641
  Initializing parent: refs/remotes/svn/&lt;branchname&gt;@3641
  Error from SVN, (175009): Malformed network data: The XML response contains invalid XML: Malformed XML: no element found
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Observation #1: When cloning with <code>-r3600:HEAD</code>, that is, from a recent-enough commit, the operation succeeds. Tedious experimentation indicated that the problem appears when starting to clone from around 100 revisions before the problematic commit.</p>
  
  <p>Observation #2: This appears to happen only for branches of the above form: mistakenly created in the repo root <code>repo/&lt;branchname&gt;</code>, and then moved to <code>repo/branches/&lt;branchname&gt;</code></p>
  
  <p>What is the problem and how to fix it?</p>