Michael Gloss in a horizontally striped undershirt known as the “telnyashka” — a distinctive part of the uniform of Russia's Airborne Troops (VDV). Photo: Personal archive / IStories
Michael Gloss, a 21-year-old American citizen and the son of Juliane Gallina Gloss, the CIA’s current Deputy Director for Digital Innovation, was killed in the war in Ukraine while fighting on the side of the Russian army, according to a report by the independent exiled investigative outlet Important Stories (IStories).
IStories reported that Michael Gloss signed a contract with the Russian Ministry of Defense after traveling to Russia in 2023. Prior to that, he had studied at the private liberal arts College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine — at one point named “the greenest college in America.” While there, Gloss took part in anti-war protests and was an advocate for women’s rights and combating climate change.
In 2023, he dropped out of college and began traveling around the world. He joined the anarchist group Rainbow Family — which describes itself as “the largest best coordinated nonpolitical nondenominational non-organization of like-minded individuals on the planet” — and took part in humanitarian efforts to rebuild areas in Turkey devastated by earthquakes.
As iStories notes, Gloss’s views changed dramatically during his travels. He gave himself the nickname Hamza, expressed interest in the Palestinian cause, became engrossed in conspiracy theories, and adopted ideas of a “multipolar world” and resistance to “Western hegemony.” After arriving in Russia in the summer of 2023, he created a profile on the country’s domestic social network VK, subscribed to groups about Stalin and Lenin, and posted videos featuring Vladimir Putin.
Sources told IStories that Gloss voluntarily walked into a military recruitment office on Yablochkova Street in Moscow and signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense.
After two weeks of training, Gloss and his group — which largely consisted of Nepali citizens — were transported by bus to a military unit, IStories writes. Gloss was assigned to the 137th Guards Airborne Regiment (Unit No. 41450), based in Ryazan. A fellow soldier told the outlet that Gloss had “his own vision of how he could be useful at the front,” noting that he had studied construction and engineering in college and was focused on “inventions and innovations.” Gloss was deployed to the combat zone in December 2023. “If I’m not mistaken, after training he was assigned to an assault unit,” the soldier added. At the time, the 137th Regiment was active northwest of Soledar in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region.
Those interviewed by IStories include Gloss’s friends from the U.S., activists who traveled with him, and a fellow soldier. They recounted how the young American, who grew up in a family with military and intelligence backgrounds, transformed from a hippie and climate activist into a Russian soldier.
A fellow serviceman from his unit in Ryazan told the outlet that Gloss’s motivation for going to war was “easy to understand”: “He was a passionate supporter of Russia and loved the country. Once in Moscow, he decided for himself that he wanted to be useful in this special operation, but he didn’t intend to take up arms.”
Michael himself reportedly told Mert, a member of the Balkan Rainbow Gathering group, that his reason for enlisting in the army was to obtain a Russian passport — not to fight. He believed that Russian citizenship would help him achieve his “life’s purpose.”
Gloss described it as follows: “My life’s purpose is to build supercritical water oxidization infrastructure. In order to end ecological pollution and pollution related illness and death i.e: cancer, lymphoma, and all the hormonal problems related to microplastics and estrogenics in the water.”
Michael was killed on April 4, 2024, according to an obituary published by his family. His funeral took place in the United States on Dec. 21, 2024 — eight months after his death. Based on messages shared in Rainbow Family group chats, his relatives appear to have learned of his death approximately two months prior to the funeral.
“His family was contacted by the Russian government,” wrote Michael’s Balkan Rainbow Family friend, who spoke to his sister. “It was announced that he died within the borders of Ukraine. We do not know whether he participated in the war. They did not provide any other detailed information.”
The “special military operation” (SVO) is a euphemism used by the Russian government to refer to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which began on Feb. 24, 2022. The term is used in official Russian media, government statements, and pro-Kremlin discourse to justify Moscow’s military actions, frame the invasion as a limited operation rather than an all-out war, and suppress dissent.