The son of CIA Deputy Director Julianne Gallina was killed while fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine last year, the investigative news outlet IStories reported Friday, citing a leaked database from a Moscow military recruitment center.Michael Alexander Gloss, 21, died on April 4, 2024, according to an obituary posted by a funeral home in Fairfax, Virginia.
IStories reported that Russian authorities informed his family of his death in October, and he was buried in his hometown in December.The obituary does not mention his military service, stating only that he was tragically killed in Eastern Europe.Gallina was appointed the CIAs deputy director for digital innovation in February 2024.
Gloss father, Larry Gloss, a U.S.
Navy veteran, became president of a security-focused software firm in May 2024.According to IStories, Gloss had previously been a climate activist who left school to travel, eventually joining the counter-culture group Rainbow Family in Turkey and Italy and supporting the pro-Palestinian cause.
He arrived in Russia in August 2023 after obtaining a visa in Turkey and enlisted with a military contract recruitment center in Moscow the following month.Gloss underwent brief training alongside Nepalese mercenaries before being deployed to a paratrooper base in Ryazan.
He was reportedly assigned to an assault unit sent to eastern Ukraine in December 2023 and last appeared online in mid-March, weeks before he was killed during offensive operations near Soledar in the Donetsk region.Gloss was one of more than 1,500 foreign nationals from 48 countries listed in the leaked recruitment database since Russias invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Friends told IStories he had hoped to obtain Russian citizenship and attract investors for environmental projects, though some said he never intended to fight, while others believed he may have been influenced by conspiracy theories.He wanted the world to be a better place with more fairness, peace and harmony with nature, his obituary read.