The news, which in the absence of real snow lays claim to the nomination "snow on your head": five minutes before his resignation, the head of the regional state administration, Anatoliy Frantsuz, has been recognized as a nominee for the "Person of the Year-2004" award. Along with him, the head of the Crimean government, Serhiy Kunitsyn, and the Ivano-Frankivsk leader, Mykhailo Vyshyvanok, will compete for this award. Let's not talk about Kunitsyn and Vyshyvanyuk. About the latter, we have heard that he is a strong manager, but the Americans do not want to let him in because they believe he contributed to pressure on voters in the autumn of 2004. Mr. Frantsuz is closer to us. Regarding the nomination of Anatoliy Yosypovych, Volyn residents have doubts about the transparency of the decision by the administration of the "Person of the Year" program and, in general, the appropriateness of his participation in this show. "How can Frantsuz's activity as a regional leader be rated so highly if he has not been in Volyn for 4 months?" Oleksandr Stirko, head of the regional branch of the Committee of Voters of Ukraine, told us. And indeed — how? Practically since August, the region has been run by other people. First, Anatoliy Frantsuz was treated after an accident he got into while driving from Crimea. Then there was talk of his vacation. And during the days of the Orange Revolution and to this day, even his subordinates do not know where he actually is. According to unofficial information, he is being treated in Kyiv or near Kyiv. Let us not forget such a "trifle" as the governor's success as a regional leader. After November, even his deputies started talking about "crisis phenomena in the economy of Volyn." Does he have genuine, rather than "inflated," authority among Volyn residents? Can his leadership of the region be called transparent if he communicated with journalists directly, without interpreters, one and a half times? In a word: "Anatoliy Frantsuz — regional leader of the year" — this sounds like a mockery of the will of more than six hundred thousand Volyn residents who voted for the presidential candidate against whom officials of Frantsuz's administration worked. By the way, as the PR manager of the "Person of the Year" program, Svitlana Yanenko, reported, the nominees' candidacies are put forward by the program's experts. There are more than 700 of them in total. Notably, from Volyn ... there is not a single one. The winner of each nomination is determined by the Higher Academic Council 3 hours before the presentation of statuettes and prizes. Incidentally, laureates receive prizes in addition to a diploma. "These gifts are very valuable," noted Ms. Svitlana.