Maxim Lyutyi: who is the vegan influencer who let his newborn son die

«No milk, nourishment only with the sun's rays». With this crazy belief, Russian influencer Maxim Lyutyi, 44, left little Kosmos, just 30 days old, to die. The incident dates back to March 2023, but only now did the man confess during the trial in which he was accused. For this reason he was arrested. His partner was exonerated, but sentenced to two years of community service and mother of the child, who had tried to breastfeed her son: Lyutyi admitted that he had prevented her from doing so and therefore it was he who caused his death. Doctors determined that the child was severely malnourished and had ongoing pneumonia.

Why did he let him die? The man's belief was that he did not need, or rather was harmful, any type of food nourishment, while sun exposure would have been enough to “grow” and support the little one. The ambition was to make his son “a superman”. But, obviously, this was not the case and at a certain point, Lyutyi and his partner Oxana, 34 years old, took the child to hospital because “he appeared tired”, they explained to the rescuers, who however were only able to record his death: Kosmos weighed just 1 kilo and 300 grams.

The process was long and full of twists and turns: initially Maxim tried to shift the blame onto Oxana, who has always defended herself by claiming to be intimidated by her partner, who had also imposed strict rules on her diet. The Sun, quoting Oxana's mother, Galina, writes that the woman had described her daughter as “a slave” of Lyutyi, but that she “did not want to listen to her.” The man had not only forced her to give birth in her home, not trusting any midwife, but had also forced her to repeatedly immerse her newborn baby in freezing waterclaiming that this practice would have strengthened him. In the end the influencer collapsed and now faces an 8-year prison sentence for “intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm”.

Maxim Lyutyi was known as a lifestyle influencer: in his posts he invited followers to follow him in a series of vegan diet and lifestyle choices, in a sign of respect for the Planet. However, at the trial some neighbors, called to testify by the defense to highlight the lack of credibility of the accused, testified to the man's double life: on the outside he showed himself as a “fanatic” of veganism and raw food but he secretly bought and consumed meat and non-vegan foods. Furthermore, he would have liked to experiment with this “breath of the sun” on his son and then “market it” to other parents.