2003, the center was renamed the Saint Irenaeus of Lyons Center for Religious Studies (Центр религиоведческих исследований во имя священномученика Иринея Лионского), with Dvorkin as its president. The center works with Christian countercult organizations in Russia and abroad, being the head center of the Russian Association of Centers for the Study of Religions and Sects. Since 2009, Dvorkin has been vice-president of the European Federation of Centres of Research and Information on Sectarianism (FECRIS), an umbrella organization for anti-cult groups in Europe. Dvorkin is on the board of FECRIS. Dvorkin has been extremely active in opposing cults and new religious movements through his publications. Between 1999 and 2012 he was professor and head of the department of the study of new religious movements (сектоведения) at Saint Tikhon's Orthodox University, Moscow, Russia. He is currently a professor in the department of missiology (миссиологии) at the same university. 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. According to Yuri Savenko, the President of the Independent Psychiatric Association of Russia, Dvorkin has claimed that the followers of Nikolai Rerikh as well as Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, Hare Krishnas, Neo-Pagans, Neo-Pentecostals, and many others are "totalitarian cults". In May 2008, Dvorkin attended a Sino-Russian Forum on sect studies in Beijing, and in an interview with Xinhua he said that "Falun Gong practitioners feel they do not belong to any country and act entirely in accordance with Li [Hongzhi]'s will. The cult even gained support from other international cults and from the governments and parliaments of some western countries." And that cults "turn individuals into tools of cults, and destroy their families... Cults make no contribution to the society. But they kept absorbing human resources and wealth from it.... Like cancerous cells, they obtain nutrition from the healthy body of society until it collapses." The 2009 annual report of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom describes Dvorkin as "Russia‘s most prominent 'anti-cult' activist" who "lacks academic credentials as a religion specialist". The American government claimed in 2018 that "Dvorkin is one of a large network of radical Russian Orthodox activists who have grown considerably in influence over