The son of Julianne Gallina, the Deputy Director of the CIA, was killed while fighting alongside Russian troops in Ukraine last year, as reported by the investigative news organization IStories on Friday, referencing a leaked database from a military recruitment center in Moscow.
Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, lost his life on April 4, 2024, according to an obituary published by a funeral home in Fairfax, Virginia. IStories detailed that Russian officials notified his family of his death in October, and he was laid to rest in his hometown in December.
The obituary does not mention his military activities but states that he was “tragically killed in Eastern Europe.”
Gallina took on the role of CIA Deputy Director for Digital Innovation in February 2024. Gloss’s father, Larry Gloss, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, became the president of a software company focused on security in May 2024.
As per IStories, Gloss had previously been an environmental activist who left school to travel, eventually joining the counter-culture group Rainbow Family in Turkey and Italy, where he supported pro-Palestinian efforts. He arrived in Russia in August 2023 after securing a visa in Turkey and subsequently enlisted at a military recruitment center in Moscow the following month.
Gloss received brief training with a group of Nepalese mercenaries before being assigned to a paratrooper base in Ryazan. He was reportedly placed in an assault unit that was sent to eastern Ukraine in December 2023 and was last seen online in mid-March, just weeks before he was killed during offensive operations near Soledar in the Donetsk region.
Gloss was among over 1,500 foreign nationals from 48 different countries documented in the leaked recruitment database since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Friends told IStories that he had aspirations of obtaining Russian citizenship and securing investors for environmental initiatives, though some believed he never intended to fight, while others felt he may have fallen prey to conspiracy theories.
“He envisioned a world that was fairer, more peaceful, and in harmony with nature,” his obituary stated.
