Putin gives Trump envoy award for CIA official's son

A CIA statement later that month said Gloss had been suffering from mental health problems, adding that his death was not a national security issue.

Gloss was never an employee of the CIA, a person familiar with the matter told CBS.

Sources also told CBS that the Kremlin did not initially appear to be aware of the family background of Gloss, who enlisted with Russian forces in autumn 2023.

Gloss had shared selfies in Moscow's Red Square on social media last year. His posts had expressed support for Russia in what he called "the Ukraine Proxy war" and dismissed media coverage of the conflict as "western propaganda".

An obituary for Gloss published in November 2024 said he was "killed in Eastern Europe" on 4 April that year.

The CIA's statement about his death four months ago said that Ms Gallina and her family had suffered "an unimaginable personal tragedy".

Gloss's father, Iraq war veteran Larry Gloss, told the Washington Post in an interview this April that their son had struggled for most of his life with mental illness.

"Our biggest fear while we were waiting for him to be repatriated was that someone over there [in Moscow] would put two and two together and figure out who his mother was, and use him as a prop," Larry Gloss said.