Scientology Lies

The director of Russia's major psychiatry center has expressed concern over the effect Church of Scientology programs have on the mental health of the country's population.

"Today there are certain problems with Church of Scientology followers, who are interfering in all areas of life," Tatiana Dmitriyeva, the Serbsky psychiatry center head, said at a meeting with Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II in Moscow on Thursday.

Dmitriyeva accused the religious organization's members of trying to recruit people affected by the early September terrorist attack in the North Ossetian town of Beslan. "But [Beslan] residents have put up determined resistance against the sect," she said.

"On a number of occasions, courts have sent documents about sects that affect the mental health of Russian citizens to the [center] for an examination,' Dmitriyeva said.

The Church of Scientology, which was founded by science-fiction writer Ron Hubbard in the second part of the past century, has been banned in many countries worldwide.