Georgia's conflict with Russia caused around two billion dollars (1.4 billion euros) worth of damage in his country, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in an interview published Monday. Speaking to the Financial Times, Saakashvili said that in addition to cash for reconstruction, Georgia needed "insurance" from Europe and the United States to allay investors' fears.
Asked how much damage he estimated was done, he replied: "Billions. It's infrastructure, roads and railways, but also confidence. At this stage we are talking about two billion dollars." On what Georgia needed to rebuild, Saakasvili said: "We need cash but in the long-run we need some kind of insurance for the companies coming here, that would make doing business easy."
"What the economy needs to develop is a meaningful level of security," he continued. "We need to get out the message that investors should not be scared that Russian tanks will destroy their investment. We need some kind of security, peacekeeping force that would deter them and secondly we need business insurance for investors.