your utf8 string loose the utf8 flag. After you get it back from the database. You have to tell that the data from the db is in utf8. 
my $same_with_utf8_on = Encode::decode("utf8", $from_db);

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Or if you are sure, use 
Encode::_utf8_on($from_db);

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Boris

In reply to Re: database stores UTF8 strings inconsistently by borisz
in thread database stores UTF8 strings inconsistently by robv

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