In October 2001, he was re-elected to the Duma of Astrakhan Oblast and became the chairman of the committee on state policy, legality, law and order and security.

[9][10] During Bozhenov's term in Astrakhan, a situation developed in which supporters of his opponent Oleg Shein were beaten by unknown people.

In addition, a number of fires occurred in the city, in which 28 people died, and the territories under these houses were subsequently sold by the mayor's office for building:[11][12][13] “Since he headed Astrakhan, the situation in the city has become more complicated: the Russian population began to leave it, their houses burned, and shopping centers began to be erected in their place.

[15][16] On 17 January 2012, after the resignation of Anatoly Brovko, Bozhenov, was appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev as acting head (governor) Volgograd Oblast.

[21] The Communist Party faction in the Volgograd Oblast Duma announced that it refuses to take part in the meeting scheduled for February 2, where the question of confirming Bozhenov as governor of the region should be considered.

So, Bozhenov himself and his security were assigned two Mercedes cars, which, as it turned out later, were purchased by Lukoil-Nizhnevolzhsknefteprodukt LLC for 10 million rubles and transferred to the regional administration under a donation agreement.

[34] On 11 March, Bozhenov handed over the keys to the new Toyota cars to the heads of the five districts in which Putin received the highest percentage in the elections.

[37] On 5 April, Bozhenov and a group of regional Duma members flew to Italy, ostensibly to “present the economic potential of the Volgograd Oblast.

[43] It is interesting that, for example, members of "A Just Russia" Natalia Latyshevskaya and Sergey Popov, were not afraid of the beautiful life and took part in a working visit to Italy.

She asked Prime Minister Putin "to take action on these facts and, when speaking in the State Duma, express his position on what happened."

[39] Some of the returnees could not connect even two words, and some, like member of parliament Irina Guseva, threatened bloggers and journalists with the prosecutor's office.

[52] Interestingly, on 9 April, the press service of the head of the regional administration posted on the official website information that Bozhenov allegedly visited the construction site of one of the houses being built to solve the problem of defrauded equity holders.

The head of the press service of the regional administration Yulia Atopova explained that this event took place a few days before the publication of the news.

[55] The head of the Communist Party faction in the Volgograd Oblast Duma, Nikolay Parshin, suggested that the trip to Italy took place at the expense of the deputies themselves, but said that he had not seen the contracts themselves.

In addition, Parshin denied the fact of a trip to Italy by the chairman of the Government of the Volgograd Oblast, Konstantin Khramov.

Then one of the senior officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs approached a group of the most active Young Guards and demanded that they show permission to hold an alternative rally.

[62] The publication as follows comments on the fact that Bozhenov became the first head of a constituent entity of Russia, who, instead of the required "five", immediately receives a "two".

Primarily, Bozhenov began his activities with a federal scandal (the story of a trip to Italy); secondly, the management team was completely replaced, which now has almost no local representatives; thirdly, Bozhenov did not keep his word about holding elections for the governor of Volgograd Oblast in autumn 2012; fourthly, there are massive protests in the region demanding his resignation; finally, and fifthly, his image is impaired by his connection with the Astrakhan mayoral elections.

[59] At the same time, the regional government's press service reported that Governor Bozhenov was noted in the May rating of the influence of the heads of the constituent entities of Russia, as having significantly strengthened his position, gaining 17 points in comparison with the April figures.

[68] On 27 May 2012, a rally was held in Uryupinsk with the participation of more than 2 thousand people in protest against the development of a nickel deposit in the north of the region, which MMC Norilsk Nickel intends to deal with: “We demand the resignation of the governors of the Volgograd and Voronezh Oblasts - Bozhenov and Gordeyev as leaders, who do not care about people and about the land on which we live.

[69] In early June 2012 Bozhenov extended the powers of a member of the Federation Council from the executive branch of the Volgograd Oblast to former Governor Nikolay Maksyuta.

[70] Shortly thereafter, Maksyuta's assistant Sergey Trofimov wrote a letter of resignation from his post on his own initiative.

But at the same time, he indicated the reasons that prompted him to leave this post, in particular, disagreement with the policy of the regional leadership and unwillingness to take a compromising position with the course of Governor Bozhenov.

[72][73][74] In the September rating of the influence of the heads of the regions of the Agency for Political and Economic Communications, published in Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Bozhenov took 21st place, up by 8 positions.

[75] At the end of 2012, the Volgograd Oblast topped the list of subjects in terms of the amount of unused subsidies to support the agro-industrial complex.

[77] Tens of thousands of pigs kept in private farmsteads were destroyed, this deprived many people of their livelihood, entailed an increase in social tension in rural areas.

[78][79] Meanwhile, there is an opinion that these measures are not aimed at combating the plague, the spread of which on such a scale has not been confirmed by laboratory tests, but are related to the commercial interests of groups close to the governor.

[80] At the very beginning of 2013, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Volgograd Oblast Government, Pavel Krupnov, was detained on suspicion of accepting a bribe in the amount of 17 million rubles.

In this regard, Viktor Kazantsev, the former plenipotentiary in the Southern Federal District, said: “Along with condolences to the wounded, relatives and friends of the injured and killed, I am personally overwhelmed with surprise and anger.

Already after the October explosions in the Volgograd bus, the question arose about the official compliance of the governor of the Oblast, Bozhenov.".