Michael Gloss / via FacebookMichael Gloss, 21, died in Ukraine last year.
President Vladimir Putin has handed over an award to Donald Trump’s special envoy for presentation to a high-ranking CIA agent whose son was killed while fighting on Russia’s side in Ukraine.
Well-informed sources told the BBC’s US partner CBS that Putin presented the Order of Lenin to Steve Witkoff during the latter’s visit to Moscow this week for talks on a plan to end the conflict in Ukraine.
Michael Gloss, 21, who died on the Ukrainian front a year ago, was the son of Juliana Gallina, the deputy head of the CIA’s Directorate of Technological Development.
Information about the award ceremony became known after confirmation of the upcoming meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska next Friday to discuss prospects for resolving the conflict.
Neither the Russian Foreign Ministry nor the presidential administration have officially confirmed the fact that Gloss was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin, a Soviet award for exceptional civilian achievements.
The fate of the award remains unclear. White House, CIA and Witkoff officials declined to comment when contacted.
The first reports of Gloss’s death appeared in Russian media in April 2024.
Vladimir Putin welcomes Steve Witkoff to Moscow on Wednesday
Later that month, CIA officials said Gloss had suffered psychological problems, but stressed that his death was not related to national security issues.
A source close to the organization told CBS that Gloss was never an intelligence officer.
Insiders also told CBS that Russian authorities were likely initially unaware of the family ties of Gloss, who joined the Russian military in the fall of 2023.
Last year, Gloss posted photos from Red Square on social media, expressing support for Russia’s position in the “war for Ukrainian proxies” and calling media coverage of the conflict a “Western propaganda machine.”
A November 2024 obituary states that he was “killed in Eastern Europe” on April 4 of that year.
An official CIA statement released four months earlier noted that Gallina’s family was suffering “an impossible personal loss.”
Michael’s father, Iraq war veteran Larry Gloss, told the Washington Post in April that their son had struggled with mental illness since he was a teenager.
“As we waited for his body to be returned, our greatest fear was that someone in Moscow would connect the dots, learn of his mother’s status, and use it for propaganda purposes,” Larry Gloss said.
Watch: Trump said there was a “high chance” of holding a meeting with Putin and Zelensky “in the near future.”
Source: bbc.com