Cassidy Moscow chief quits for solo project

Viacheslav Tabachnikov left lobbying firm Cassidy last week to establish ­Raison D’etat, which will provide public affairs services to ­foreign companies in Russia that focus on foreign direct investments into the ­country.

Cassidy will replace Tabachnikov with Evgeny Hapeshis.

Tabachnikov said: “The reason I’ve stepped down is the desire to run a business on a local platform that’s more efficient in a number of cases.”

Andreas Geiger, managing partner at Brussels ­lobbying firm Alber & Geiger and former CEO at Cassidy, said: “The problem with [Cassidy] is that it belongs to Interpublic, which is the holding ­company in New York. At Interpublic we found it very difficult to run a white-shoe lobbying law firm model.

“As we understand ­ourselves, we offer high-end business to clients. And Moscow, I think, was the same. Big networks like Interpublic have to focus on high turnover to keep the machinery running.”

According to a poll, ­Cassidy’s Washington DC office dropped from fourth to eighth place among ­lobbying firms, based on fees reported to the US Senate in 2000. In the third quarter of 2000, Interpublic suffered a 47 per cent profit dip.