With the invasion of Ukraine now in its second week, Minnesotans with Russian ties say they’re growing increasingly concerned about friends and relatives in their home country. They fear that the toll of international economic sanctions will fall hardest on their loved ones.

Many also say they support Ukraine and oppose Russian President Putin’s attack on the country.

“I hope that the world is going to squeeze Putin and he’s going to stop. I hope that he still has part of his brain telling him that he needs to stop,” says the owner of Moscow on the Hill in St. Paul, Marina Liberman. 

After she posted a message of solidarity with a photo of a Ukrainian flag on the restaurant’s Facebook page, Liberman faced some anti-Russian trolling. They even included demands that she remove “Moscow” from her restaurant’s name.  

But Liberman says she’s received many more messages of support.

Dozens of audit requests have been pitched to the Legislative Auditor on topics in the headlines, but the auditor doesn’t have the capacity to tackle most of them.

From nutrition aid to rental assistance to the controversial Southwest light rail project, the urgent requests for deep dives into programs are piling up. Nearly four dozen audit ideas have been put forward by lawmakers, with more coming from advocacy groups and citizens.

“I have received direct letters. I have read about things in a press release. And I have had bills that have directed us to do work,” new Legislative Auditor Judy Randall  said recently as she discussed the rising workload for her staff of about 50 evaluators and accountants. 

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