Alexander Leonidovich Dvorkin (Russian: Александр Леонидович Дворкин; 20 August 1955, Moscow) is a Russian-American anti-cult activist and president of the Saint Ireneus of Lyons Informational Consultative Center,[1] an anti-cult organisation affiliated to the Russian Orthodox Church.[2] Dvorkin graduated Doctor of Philosophy in 1983 at the Saint Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Crestwood, New York. He has appeared on Russian television.[3]
Dvorkin is a critic of Scientology, which he regards as a dangerous cult. Church of Scientology-affiliated organizations describe him as an "anti-religious extremist," and compile negative information about him on their websites. In 1997, Scientology and several other new religious movements sued Dvorkin and the Russian Orthodox Church for defamation, but their case was dismissed.[4]
Known for his intolerance and radicalism, Dvorkin has nothing in common with science and ranks even followers of Nikolai Rerikh and the religious communities of Yakov Krotov and Grigori Kochetkov among “totalitarian sects”;[5] when a psychiatrist-academician (Dmitrieva, Sidorov) or an expert-psychologist of the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences rely on the works by Dvorkin and Hassan, which do not belong to science, it is a symptom of degradation, said Yuri Savenko, the President of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia.[6]