Russian Influencer, Who Exposed Baby To 'Only Sunlight', Jailed After Starving Son To Death

In a shocking incident from Russia’s Sochi, an influencer was sentenced to eight years in prison after he starved his one-month-old son to death, as he believed that exposing the baby to sunlight would grant him superhuman abilities.

The baby, named Kosmos, reportedly died of malnutrition and pneumonia while being rushed to the hospital.

According to a report by Metro, Kosmos was born at home because the accused influencer,  Maxim Lyutyi,  refused to let the boy’s mother, Oksana Mironova, visit a maternity hospital.

After that he also made the infant stick to a strict vegan ‘prana’ diet, while focussing on foods such as berries believed to enhance the body’s spiritual energy.

By the time Lyutyi took his baby boy to the hospital on March 8 last year, it was already too late as Kosmos was so malnourished that he had lost his life.

Doctors declared the 3.5-pound baby dead, following which both the parents were arrested.

As per a social media post from January, Lyutyi expected an early release but now he is facing more than eight years behind bars in a high-security prison for ‘intentional infliction of serious bodily harm.’ This comes after his last-minute change of plea to guilty last week.

His wife’s cousin Olesya Nikolayeva also expressed her disapproval saying that the man forced her not to feed the baby as he believed that the sun was feeding the baby.

Nikolayeva further said, “Oksana was secretly trying to breastfeed the baby, but she was very afraid of Maxim.”

“How is it possible to feed the baby with sunlight? A baby needs his mother’s milk,” she added.

The Metro report also stated that influencer wanted to experiment by feeding the child purely with sun and then advertise it to others that this is how you can eat.

Reports have also claimed that Lyutyi rejected traditional medical care and made Kosmos undergo cold baths as he believed that it would strengthen the baby.

During his imprisonment, the influencer completely abandoned his previous beliefs, even about consuming meat.

Mironova’s mother also expressed that she was against her daughter for being in this sect.

‘I felt everything, and told her that Maxim was crazy, but she didn’t listen to me. Oksana lived there like a guinea pig. Each time she became colder to me…. She was his slave,” the woman’s mother said.

One of their relatives also claimed that Lyutyi wanted to raise his son as a man who only eats the sun.