Alexey Leonidovich Pajitnov (born 16 April 1955) is a Russian computer engineer and video game designer. He is best-known for designing and developing Tetris in 1984 while working at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre under the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union (now the Russian Academy of Sciences). In 1996, five years after his relocation to the United States from the Soviet Union, Pajitnov founded The Tetris Company alongside Dutch video game designer Henk Rogers; Pajitnov did not receive royalties from Tetris prior to this time, despite the game's high popularity.