The son of a top Biden-era CIA official has been killed while allegedly fighting alongside Russian forces on the frontlines in Ukraine, shedding new light on growing ideological fractures in American youth.
According to a New York Post report, citing an investigation by Russian outlet iStories, 21-year-old Michael Alexander Gloss—son of Juliane Gallina Gloss, Biden’s CIA Deputy Director for Digital Innovation, and Navy veteran Larry Gloss—abandoned his American home and traveled across continents to join the Russian military in exchange for promised citizenship.
Gloss is one of over 1,500 foreigners who passed through Russian military recruitment centers during the Ukraine war, iStories revealed. These recruits reportedly hailed from 48 countries, including U.S. allies in Europe.
A Family’s Tragic Announcement
In April 2025, the Gloss family publicly mourned Michael’s death, describing him as a boy full of affection, invention, and an intense love for nature. Their tribute painted a picture of a young man brimming with life, who built snow forts and forest shelters for friends and family during his youth.
Michael’s father later admitted to The Post that his son battled significant mental health issues, which fueled grandiose ideas about environmental causes and humanitarian missions. “He always cared deeply about the environment and helping the disadvantaged,” Larry Gloss said, adding that Michael came to believe he could achieve his dreams through Russian citizenship.
From Eagle Scout to Mercenary
Michael’s descent into radicalization was not spontaneous. His path, according to iStories, was shaped through exposure to radical leftist ideologies at the College of the Atlantic in Maine—a school praised as “America’s Greenest College” but known for promoting activism over academics.
There, Gloss threw himself into climate protests, disrupted public events, and even faced arrest. Through radicalized networks, he absorbed extreme anti-Western, anti-capitalist narratives blaming the United States and NATO for global inequality. He grew sympathetic to the idea of “intersectional solidarity” —an activist framework rooted in Marxist thought—and began seeing Russia as a counterweight to Western “imperialism.”
Gloss expressed these views in personal writings and voice messages, railing against the West’s “fiat economy,” celebrating China’s growing global influence, and praising BRICS nations for opposing NATO’s dominance.
A Fatal Journey to Russia
After failed attempts to live in eco-communes and disaster relief zones in Turkey, Gloss made his way to Russia in 2023. Crossing the Georgia-Russia border illegally, he struggled for survival in cities like Vladikavkaz and Moscow, even resorting to petty theft to sustain himself.
When faced with visa expiration and destitution, Gloss enlisted in Russia’s foreign mercenary recruitment program. Adopting the alias “Hamza Ali,” he shaved his head, donned a red keffiyeh, and trained at Moscow’s Avangard center alongside recruits from Nepal and China.
Despite frail health and language barriers, Gloss completed training and was assigned to the elite 137th Guards Airborne Regiment in Ryazan—a prestigious Russian military unit.
A Delusional Sense of Mission
Gloss’s comrades described him as harboring a “messianic” belief that by fighting for Russia, he was advancing a “greater ecological mission” against the Western powers he had come to despise. His idealism blinded him to the grim realities of the brutal conflict.
In December 2023, shortly before his death, Gloss sent one final voice message to friends, expressing hope that the world could heal itself through a global alliance of oppressed peoples, brokered by emerging powers like China and Russia.
His tragic story underscores a troubling phenomenon: when ideological radicalization meets untreated mental health issues, even young Americans from elite backgrounds can end up dying on foreign battlefields, fighting against the very country that raised them.
