monthly donation<\/a>.<\/p>\nA friend of Gloss\u2019s who hosted him in Istanbul told iStories that he \u201cwas always talking about doom and gloom \u2014 poverty, the collapse of civilizations.\u201d According to the friend, Gloss \u201cwas convinced that Western hegemony was coming to an end and that BRICS would take its place.” Another acquaintance in Turkey recalled that Gloss had been watching videos about Palestine and \u201cwas very angry” at the United States. \u201cHe started thinking about going to Russia. He wanted to fight against the U.S. But I think those conspiracy theory videos really got to him,\u201d the friend said.<\/p>\n
Gloss arrived in Russia in August 2023. Before obtaining a visa, he asked people he knew to help him get an official invitation to enter the country. He gave different people varying reasons for the trip, including that he wanted to learn Russia, that he planned to apply for citizenship, and that he had an environmental project he wanted to pursue. According to border control records reviewed by the publication, he crossed into Russia from Georgia on August 12.<\/p>\n
Over the next month, Gloss traveled to Vladikavkaz, Taganrog, Volgograd, and Moscow. On September 1, he said his visa would expire in a week, and by September 3, he was looking for places to stay in Vienna and Bratislava. But two days later, on September 5, his name appeared in Russia\u2019s unified military registration system. The address listed was a military enlistment office on Yablochkova Street in Moscow, and his \u201cresidence\u201d was listed as medical exam room 302. According to iStories, this address has been previously used by foreigners coming to Moscow to sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry to fight in the war.<\/p>\n
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In the days that followed, Gloss appeared at the Avangard training center in the Moscow region, according to photos taken at the time. Around then, he created a profile on VKontakte under the name Hamza Ali and joined several groups, including \u201cThe Romance of Russian Villages\u201d and \u201cWe Are Here from the USSR.\u201d He also shared a video titled \u201cPutin calls for the creation of an independent Palestine,\u201d as well as footage from Israel, accusing Israeli troops of \u201cfiring on Israeli civilians\u201d in Kibbutz Be’eri on October 7, 2023.<\/p>\n
After two weeks of training, Gloss\u2019s group \u2014\u00a0mostly made up of Nepali citizens \u2014\u00a0was transported by bus to a military unit. He was assigned to the 137th Guards Airborne Regiment (Unit No. 41450) based in Ryazan, iStories found. One of his fellow soldiers said that Gloss \u201chad his own ideas about how he could be useful on the front.\u201d \u201cHe studied construction and engineering in college, so all his thoughts were about inventions and innovations,\u201d the soldier said. Gloss was deployed to the front in December 2023. \u201cIf I\u2019m not mistaken, after training he was sent to an assault unit,\u201d the soldier added. At the time, the 137th Regiment was operating northwest of Soledar in Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk region.<\/p>\n
Michael Gloss was killed on April 4, 2024 according to an obituary published by his family, which did not mention that his death occurred in Ukraine. That same day, a Telegram channel linked to the 106th Airborne Division \u2014\u00a0which the Ryazan regiment belongs to \u2014\u00a0reported that the unit was carrying out an offensive near the villages of Rozdolivka and Vesele in the Donetsk region. The exact circumstances of Gloss\u2019s death remain unknown. His funeral took place in the U.S. eight months later, on December 21, 2024. A friend of Gloss\u2019s from the Rainbow Family gathering said she spoke with his sister, who told her the Russian authorities had contacted the family and informed them that Gloss had died in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
According to a member of the Rainbow Family, Gloss said he joined the Russian army to obtain citizenship, not to fight. A fellow soldier from his unit in Ryazan said Gloss \u201cwas a passionate supporter of Russia and loved it,\u201d but that during the war, \u201che had no intention of picking up a weapon.\u201d None of Gloss\u2019s family members responded to iStories\u2019s request for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Michael Gloss, an American citizen and the son of CIA Deputy Director for Digital Innovation Juliane Gallina Gloss,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49459,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657,7888,7883,7886,7875,7868,7880,7870,7881,7887,7876,7864,7871,7865,7873,7874,7866,7869,7867,7885,7879,7872,7884,7882,7878,7877],"class_list":{"0":"post-49458","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine","11":"tag-7888","12":"tag-7883","13":"tag-7886","14":"tag-7875","15":"tag-7868","16":"tag-7880","17":"tag-7870","18":"tag-7881","19":"tag-7887","20":"tag-7876","21":"tag-7864","22":"tag-7871","23":"tag-7865","24":"tag-7873","25":"tag-7874","26":"tag-7866","27":"tag-7869","28":"tag-7867","29":"tag-7885","30":"tag-7879","31":"tag-7872","32":"tag-7884","33":"tag-7882","34":"tag-7878","35":"tag-7877"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114398806935112297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}