Are American journalists collaborating with Nazi terrorists to silence dissent?
There is another war going on in Ukraine. A war of repression is being waged on journalists, political dissidents and anyone who dares to speak against the Kyiv regime. It has been going on uninterrupted since the Maidan coup of 2014. It is not being fought on the battlefield, but rather in the press, online and in the diabolic black sites of the Ukrainian secret police.
The list of those who have been detained, repressed or even killed has grown as this crisis wears on. To name a few more recent examples:
Kirill Vyshinsky: Arrested in 2018 on charges of treason considered so absurd that the United States, Europe and Russia all considered it a human rights violation. Released in 2019 in a prisoner swap with Russia.
Yuriy Tkachev: Arrested in 2022, a peace activist and editor of left-wing website Timer-Odessa. Abducted from his home, beaten, framed and placed into the custody of neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, who has openly threatened to kill him.
Valery Kuleshov: Kherson resident and blogger. Executed in broad daylight in a parking lot. A disturbing video exists of the aftermath of his execution. His crime was running for city council.
Alexander Matyushenko: Anti-fascist journalist. He was kidnapped, tortured for hours, coerced into false confessions, and facing a possible 15-year sentence for organizing protests against the Kyiv regime.
There are many more. Max Blumenthal has an excellent article about this subject as does local activist Oleg Yasinsky.
Hit lists are widely published on the internet. This one proudly stamps “LIQUIDATED” over the photos of those killed or arrested. It is supported by the government and intelligence services of Ukraine and is so controversial that even countries such as allied Hungary have condemned it, along with the United Nations.
Hit lists are widely published on the internet. One of the most infamous is ironically called “Myrotvorets” or Peacemaker, although its mission is the opposite of its name. “Peacemaker” proudly stamps LIQUIDATED on the profiles of captured or killed dissidents, many of whom are listed for petty crimes such as stepping on a Ukrainian flag at a protest. It is supported by the government and intelligence of Ukraine and is so controversial that even countries such as allied Hungary have condemned it, along with the United Nations.
It seems that now we can add Gonzalo Lira’s name to this terrible list.
Who is Gonzalo Lira?
Gonzalo is a Chilean-American author, filmmaker, journalist and men’s rights activist who has been covering the war since its beginning.
Lira was born in 1968 in Burbank, California, and the family travelled often when he was a child. He bounced between the San Fernando Valley, New York, Miami, Ecuador and Chile, where he attended college. In 1998, he released his first film, a short film entitled So Kinky and would produce an action film entitled Secuestro in 2005. He also did a bit of consulting work on video games.
He has published several novels, mostly in the spy/action genre, before transitioning to politics and men’s rights activism. His best-known work was as an MRA YouTuber called “Coach Redpill,” which would continue on his Patreon after he was banned from YouTube.
As is typical with an MRA, most of Lira’s content was very right wing and misogynistic. He was a successful figure in the MRA world, with his Patreon alone generating at least $15,000 a month, along with keeping busy through plenty of interviews and appearances with other MRAs. Several years ago, he moved to Ukraine and was in Kyiv when the war broke out.
Lira was trapped in a hotel by the advance of the Russian Army and became a prolific reporter on the war simply by chance. His coverage was, without a doubt, strongly pro-Russian. He was heavily critical of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his backer, gangster Ihor Kolomoisky.
He would later return to his home in Kharkiv and continue his coverage. It was from there that he was working until April 15, 2022. On that day, it appears that Gonzalo Lira disappeared.
Before we go any farther, it is necessary to address Gonzalo Lira’s “men’s rights” activism in a bit more depth. I do not have any sympathy for this ideology whatsoever. It is right-wing and misogynistic, and Mr. Lira was both actively involved and highly paid in spreading it.
However, this does not in any way justify Gonzalo Lira’s arrest. The neo-Nazi terrorists running rampant through Ukraine should outrage everyone, regardless of political affiliation. It is made even worse by the fact that these thugs are armed, trained and financed by both an allied government and our own military and intelligence services.
Nor do his beliefs justify the total dereliction of duty from the United States Government to protect its citizens. As of the date of publishing, no one in the Biden administration has mentioned Mr. Lira’s arrest and detention and I do not believe they ever will.
The Beast on the Scent
On the 20th of March, 2022, the Daily Beast posted this article, one of the first major media mentions of Lira during this war. This paper’s ownership and executive staff have some rather suspicious backgrounds.
The paper has some ties to the Clinton administration, and its CEO, Heather Dietrick, comes from the law firm of Goodwin Procter, LLP, which has employed multiple CIA directors and high-ranking spies.
Heather Dietrick [Source: wsj.com] 
[Source: indeed.com]
This would likely explain why it seems to have an agenda, using Mr. Lira’s participation in a loathed subculture as a framing device to discredit claims about things such as American bioweapons labs in Ukraine. These claims, while perhaps exaggerated by Mr. Lira, are indisputably true.
It illuminates Mr. Lira’s background as a right-winger in great depth and detail, but there is one seemingly insignificant section that sadly would become quite relevant on April 15th. To quote the article:
“Lira has claimed that the Zelensky administration sent men to his home in Kharkiv to disappear him, but that he miraculously avoided them and was at least recently hiding out in an undisclosed location in the city. The Ukrainian government did not respond to a request for comment, but many experts doubt the veracity of this account, and question whether he’s really still in Kharkiv as well.”
While this is written off as the ravings of a paranoid maniac in the article, it turns out that Mr. Lira was correct.
I will stop here to say that I do not believe that Mark Hay, the author of the Daily Beast article, had any nefarious intent. Mr. Hay appears to be a prolific and hardworking journalist, covering a huge variety of topics for many outlets. He was simply doing his due diligence by reaching out for a comment that may have tipped off the SBU to Mr. Lira’s whereabouts.
There is no direct line between the article and Mr. Lira’s arrest.
The first alarm bells went off on April 16, 2022, when activist and journalist Eva Karene Bartlett commented on Mr. Lira’s disappearance. On April 20th, she would post on her Telegram account logs to prove it.
On the 17th of April, Gonzalo Lira was scheduled to appear on the Mother of All Talkshows (MOAT), hosted by Scottish socialist and former member of parliament George Galloway. He did not show up and no attempt was made to contact Galloway or his staff to explain his absence. This would turn the spark into a fire, as Galloway’s popular talk show would lead many others to take note of Mr. Lira’s disappearance.
Later on the same day, journalist Dan Cohen would confirm that Lira also did not appear for a scheduled interview with him and that the internet was working in Kharkiv at the time.
The pro-Nazi anti-fascist
On the 18th of April, pro-Ukrainian journalist and embedded reporter Sarah Ashton-Cirillo gleefully remarked on Mr. Lira’s disappearance. At this point, it was becoming clear that something nefarious had happened.
Miss Ashton-Cirillo is an interesting character: former poker champion, failed Las Vegas city politician and self-proclaimed anti-fascist. She is openly pro-Azov though—negating her professed anti-fascism—and a known FBI informant.
She also has a history of racism, taking great joy in dehumanizing Russians.
Miss Ashton-Cirillo provided no evidence for her statement, so many did not initially take her seriously. While it is known that she is embedded in the Ukrainian army, it is unclear what unit, or how much sway she may have. Further investigation is called for.
It is confirmed that she was in Kharkiv, the same city in which Mr. Lira was living and working at the time of his disappearance.
All of this could be written off as misunderstandings, grudges and rumors were it not for some other events taking place on April 18th.
The beast gets his prey
Unfortunately, we must now re-acquaint ourselves with a monster by the name of Sergey “Botsun” Korotkikh. As I have outlined in a previous article, this devout neo-Nazi and terrorist is responsible for scores of murders, bombings, robberies, and horrendous atrocities such as decapitation.
He was a founding member of Azov and was richly rewarded for his skills in torture and murder by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. As the head of a newly created federal police force, Sergey would amass a fortune of millions by pillaging the Donbas. Leading his legitimized Nazi death squad, he was among the first Ukrainian forces to re-enter Bucha as he joked about shooting civilians.
Nothing would change under Zelensky, who has made posts on Instagram praising the Nazi.
That same death squad would admit on Twitter to capturing Gonzalo Lira, while joking about torturing and murdering him.
“Chile” is one of Botsun’s Nazi soldiers, and allegedly the one responsible for kneecapping Russian POWs.
It seems clear that we can add yet another name to the long list of those harmed by Sergey Korotkikh, a man who is openly supported by the Ukranian state. However, in my mind, it is reductive to lay all the blame on him.
Botsun is a well-paid agent of the Ukrainian state security services which are lavishly funded by the United States and NATO. Therefore, while Botsun and his thugs may have kicked in the door, Volodymyr Zelensky and Joe Biden paid them and gave them the target. Furthermore, what does Ashton-Cirillo know, and how?
On April 22, 2022, Gonzalo Lira re-emerged on YouTube channel The Duran. He would confirm that he was arrested and detained by the SBU and is currently unable to leave the country.
Perhaps the better angels in the SBU, rare as they are, talked the Nazis out of killing Lira, or perhaps Mr. Lira’s American citizenship and relatively high profile made it unwise.
Regardless, while Mr. Lira has made it out alive and uninjured, many Ukrainian journalists and dissidents have not been so lucky. As he would point out himself, his arrest and detention is but one more example of a long and pervasive campaign of repression waged by the Kyiv regime.
Gonzalo Lira has not responded to requests for comment. I do not know if this is for legal reasons, but will update the article as more facts are revealed.
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About the Author
Evan Reif was born in a small mining town in Western South Dakota as the son of a miner and a librarian.
His father’s struggles as a union organizer, and the community’s struggles with de-industrialization, nurtured Evan’s deep interest in left-wing politics. This, along with his love of history, made him a staunch anti-fascist.
When not writing, researching or working, Evan enjoys fishing, shooting, and Chinese cooking.
Evan can be reached at wharghoul@gmail.com.
[…] Gonzalo Lira, US-Chilean right wing blogger and Zelenski critic under house arrest in Kharkov […]
I think you are perhaps naive here. I concluded Mr Lira was quite ‘protected’ some time ago—as in probably having longtime CIA affiliation himself as a right wing reactionary anti-communist. And as the scion of an oligarchic family as well:
“Coach Red Pill-Salvador Allende”
[…] Nazis and The Beast: The Arrest of Gonzalo Lira, by Evan Reif […]
Are USA hacks. collaborating? Anerican journalism IS Nazi. What a question.