7d ago

Mass stabbing in the German city of Mannheim in May 2024: a new investigation suggests Russia may have had advance knowledge of the violence, raising questions about hybrid warfare

www.thetimes.com

Mystery of Russian web searches about Mannheim attack days before it happened

[...]

On May 31 [2024], days before the European parliamentary election, an Afghan identified by the [German] authorities as Sulaiman Ataee, 26, attempted to kill a notorious Bavarian anti-Islam activist called Michael Stürzenberger.

As Stürzenberger addressed a small rally in Mannheim [a city in Germany], the knifeman went after him, wounding Stürzenberger and four others and killing a police officer called Rouven Laur. The attacker was then shot by another armed policeman.

Ataee is on trial for the attack in Stuttgart higher regional court, facing one charge of murder and five of attempted murder. He has admitted carrying out the violence and said he saw it as his “religious duty” after being radicalised by the war in Gaza.

In the days before the attack, however, there were internet searches from IP addresses in Russia for phrases such as “terror attack in Mannheim” and “Michael Stürzenberger attack”, according to ZDF’s Terra X History documentary. The same computers were also used to search for publicly available webcams on the central market square in Mannheim where the mass stabbing later took place.

[...]

Konstantin von Notz, a Green Party MP and head of the Bundestag’s intelligence oversight committee, said the “intensification” of the attacks in the run-up to the election had been suspicious and the internet searches were grounds for an official investigation.

“I think it’s totally obvious that these digital traces and their evaluation and analysis could be an important part of coming much closer to the truth, and so they should be included,” von Notz said.

[...]

[Edit title for clarity.]

11 comments

This story may be fabricated
German secret service has voiced doubts about the usefulness of Google Trends to prove Russian involvement in such attacks. Please see the comment from @Saleh below.
Notably, there is no proof that Russia is not behind such attacks either. It's just that using Google Trends to prove this theory is not the way to go.
(I will leave this post up but I'd like to urge you not to submit further articles on this topic.)

This is likely a completely fabricated story by a marketing guy, who used gullible ZDF journalists for free exposure. He refers to himself as "Internet-Profiler" but is "Director Digital Strategy Consulting" of a digital marketing company called "cyberpromote". He has no credentials in Forensics and the company normally provides search engine optimization.
The BND, Germanys exterior intelligence, has voiced skepticism towards the claims and method used by the self proclaimed "expert". The BND could reproduce similiar "search queries" for other nations too, because google does not give the exact results, but rather related results. Also no other expert was asked about this by the ZDF journalists. They solely rely on the single claims of a single person, who likely uses this as free marketing.
https://www.n-tv.de/ticker/Sicherheitskreise-zweifeln-an-ZDF-Bericht-ueber-Russland-Bezug-bei-Anschlaegen-article25686014.html
Deepl:
However, security authorities doubt the informative value of the search: the results of the trend analysis do not refer to the number of searches actually carried out in a selected region and at a selected time, but to random samples and the probabilities calculated from them. ‘The exact terms entered are not necessarily analysed, but also word stems or even just individual words in the query,’ said the BND spokesperson.
Trend analyses with search volumes that are too small result in so-called artefacts due to the algorithms, which are not designed for this type of use. ‘The supposed correlation with these artefacts and a reference to Russia can also be reproduced for numerous other countries, which makes an attribution to Russia appear less plausible,’ it said.
In addition, anonymising VPN use is not reliably taken into account by Google Trends. ‘Search queries therefore allow only limited or no conclusions to be drawn about the actual location of the user,’ said the BND spokesperson, referring to the suspected Russian connection.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
I strongly recommend not to rush into a conspiracy theory that was most likely sawn by a person with financial interest. We already saw where this leads to during the COVID pandemic.

Surprising nobody. I'm convinced that Russia is using criminal gangs to create chaos in pretty much every country in Europe. If I had my way those gangs would face terrorism charges as well as the regular ones, if a link could be proven.

regardless of this particular story, can we stop with the "hybrid war" bullshit? it's just war. Russia is at war with us. act accordingly.

Nothing official, maybe just conspiracy theories but two weeks a go 5 people got stabbed in Amsterdam (more on that: https://nltimes.nl/2025/04/01/terrorism-formally-suspected-amsterdam-stabbing-attack-left-five-wounded).
The Dutch government does consider it a terrorist attack, but says nothing about whether he acted alone or in connection to a group. These facts however make the the heads of some people spin.
the man had various fake identities, i believe paper of different countries with different names but his own picture
he turns out to be from an occupied part of Ukraine (Donetsk)
And maybe a coincidence, maybe not
he was stopped by a British tourist who on video clearly has experience making a (civil) arrest since he is able to keep the man down all by himself without having handcuffs or anything to restrain the man. Some people say this must mean he is a British spy who was in on the plans of this man.
Be careful what you choose to believe though, this could well happen to be someone who is traumatized by war.

Go read what Russians have said about hybrid warfare stretching back 20 years. Anything to destabilize perceived enemies are seen as legitimate.

Another story without a shred of evidence.
Pathetic at this point.
- https://www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/deutschland/anschlaege-deutschland-russland-hinweise-100.html
  You tell me how someone from Russia googled the exact location of event paired with full name of offender days BEFORE the event happening.
  This is a clear indication into Russia's direction but it is especially evidence that the whole thing was intended by a third party
  
  The whole claim comes from a single marketing guy, who did some google analytics. The German exterior intelligence BND has voiced skepticism as google analytics do not provide exact results of exact queries at specific dates and the same can be reproduced for other countries easily.
  https://www.n-tv.de/ticker/Sicherheitskreise-zweifeln-an-ZDF-Bericht-ueber-Russland-Bezug-bei-Anschlaegen-article25686014.html
  Deepl:
  However, security authorities doubt the informative value of the search: the results of the trend analysis do not refer to the number of searches actually carried out in a selected region and at a selected time, but to random samples and the probabilities calculated from them. ‘The exact terms entered are not necessarily analysed, but also word stems or even just individual words in the query,’ said the BND spokesperson.
  Trend analyses with search volumes that are too small result in so-called artefacts due to the algorithms, which are not designed for this type of use. ‘The supposed correlation with these artefacts and a reference to Russia can also be reproduced for numerous other countries, which makes an attribution to Russia appear less plausible,’ it said.
  In addition, anonymising VPN use is not reliably taken into account by Google Trends. ‘Search queries therefore allow only limited or no conclusions to be drawn about the actual location of the user,’ said the BND spokesperson, referring to the suspected Russian connection.
  Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
  I strongly recommend not to rush into a conspiracy theory that was most likely sawn by a person with financial interest. We already saw where this leads to during the COVID pandemic.

11 comments

This story may be fabricated