According to an article in Financieele Dagblad, the Russians were called by someone claiming to be from the Russian government and wanting to know if they supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The universities say that “several students and one researcher” were approached this way and that they have been referred to the Netherlands intelligence and security service AIVD. “If a threat is made, we recommend reporting the incident to the police but this is often somewhat of a grey area”, a spokesperson for university association UNL told the newspaper.

The Ministry of Education describes the phone calls as highly objectionable. “Our top priority is that students and researchers should be able to study and work safely and in freedom.”