How the son of a CIA deputy director set out to backpack around the world and to save the planet — but ended up in the Russian army and died in the war in Ukraine
In a video, a thin young man with long hair tied in a messy bun carefully releases three tiny chicks from a box onto the grass. A tattoo of a peace sign — the emblem of the anti-war movement — is visible on his finger. “We found some baby chicken in the [Turkish] local market and Itthobaal had the idea to get a few of them and maybe he will travel with them. He bought maybe three or four chickens and put them in a nice little box with straw and everything he could find. But the next one of the chickens died and the second one too. He was quite sad about it and felt very stupid that he had this dream of a whole journey together with this little new family.”
A year later, Itthobaal — one of the many names that 21-year-old American Michael Gloss used to introduce himself — signed a contract with the Russian Defense Ministry and died in Ukraine. IStories has reconstructed his final route. This is the story about how a young anti-fascist, environmental activist and women’s rights advocate from the family of a CIA deputy director dreamed of traveling light around the world, but ended up in the Russian army.