Michael Gloss, an American citizen and the son of the deputy director of the CIA for digital innovation, Juliane Gallina Gloss, was killed in Ukraine while he was fighting in the Russian army last year, independent Istories reported on Friday. He was 21 years old.
Gloss’s father, Larry Gloss, is a veteran of the American navy and responsible for security information systems, a company that develops software for the US Department of Defense.
Michael joined the Russian army in 2023 after spending several months traveling around the world. According to Istories, he left the United States at the latest in winter 2023, abandoning university. He moved to Italy, then went to Israel before being expelled. He has spent the coming months in Türkiye, attending a rally of the Rainbow Family of Light and Flooering counter-culture group in the province of Hatay to help relieve earthquakes.
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A Gloss friend who welcomed him in Istanbul told the Istories that he “always spoke of misfortune and sadness – poverty, the collapse of civilizations”. According to the friend, Gloss “was convinced that Western hegemony ended and that the Brics would take its place”. Another knowledge of Turkey recalled that Gloss had watched videos on Palestine and “was very angry” against the United States. “He started thinking about going to Russia. He wanted to fight against the United States, but I think these conspiracy theory videos really brought him,” said the friend.
Gloss arrived in Russia in August 2023. Before obtaining a visa, he asked the people he knew to help him get an official invitation to enter the country. He gave different people variable reasons for the trip, in particular that he wanted to learn Russia, that he planned to ask for citizenship and that he had an environmental project that he wanted to continue. According to the border control files examined by the publication, he crossed Russia from Georgia on August 12.
During the following month, Gloss went to Vladikavkaz, Taganrog, Volgograd and Moscow. On September 1, he said that his visa would expire in a week and that on September 3, he was looking for places to stay in Vienna and Bratislava. But two days later, on September 5, his name appeared in the unified military registration system of Russia. The address listed was a military enrollment office on Yablochkova Street in Moscow, and its “residence” was listed as a medical examination room 302. According to the Istories, this address was previously used by foreigners coming to Moscow to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry to fight in the war.
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In the days that followed, Gloss appeared at the Avangard training center in the Moscow region, according to the photos taken at the time. Around the time, he created a profile on Vkontakte under the name of Hamza Ali and joined several groups, including “the romance of the Russian villages” and “we are here from the USSR”. He also shared a video entitled “Putin calls for the creation of an independent Palestine”, as well as images of Israel, accusing Israeli troops of “dismissing on Israeli civilians” in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023.
After two weeks of training, the Gloss group – mainly composed of Nepalese citizens – was transported by bus to a military unit. He was assigned to 137th Guards Airborne Regiment (unit n ° 41450) based in Ryazan, found Istories. One of his colleagues soldier said Gloss “had his own ideas on how he could be useful on the front”. “He studied construction and engineering at university, so all of his thoughts focused on inventions and innovations,” said the soldier. Gloss was deployed on the front in December 2023. “If I am not mistaken, after training, he was sent to an assault unit,” added the soldier. At the time, the 137th regiment operated northwest of Soledar in the Donetsk region of Ukraine.
Michael Gloss was killed on April 4, 2024 according to a Billology published by his family, which did not mention that his death had taken place in Ukraine. The same day, a telegram channel linked to the 106th Airborne Division – to which the Ryazan regiment belongs – reported that the unit was making an offensive near the villages of Rozdolivka and Vesele in the Donetsk region. The exact circumstances of Gloss’ death remain unknown. His funeral took place in the United States eight months later, on December 21, 2024. A Gloss friend from The Rainbow Family Gathering said that she had spoken with her sister, who told her that the Russian authorities had contacted the family and informed them that Gloss had died in Ukraine.
According to a member of the Rainbow family, Gloss said that he had joined the Russian army to obtain citizenship, not to fight. Another soldier of his unity in Ryazan said that Gloss “was a passionate supporter of Russia and that I loved it”, but that during the war, “he had no intention of collecting a weapon”. None of the Gloss family members responded to the request for comments from the Istories.
