Sergey Anatolyevich Bozhenov (; born 8 April 1965), is a Russian politician who had served as the 4th Governor of Volgograd Oblast from 2012 to 2014.
He also served as a member of the State Duma from 2011 to 2012, and the 3rd mayor of Astrakhan from 2004 to 2011.
During his career, he was a member of the parties "Yabloko", the Russian Party of Life, "United Russia" and others.Губернатор Волгоградской области Анатолий Бровко отправлен в отставку, вметсо него назначен экс-мэр Астрахани Сергей Боженов — Газета. Ru | Политика
Biography
Early life Sergey Bozhenov was born in Chamlykskaya on 8 April 1965. After the death of his parents in 1978, he was brought up in an orphanage. In 1980, he entered the Astrakhan GPTU-9, specializing in a “minder-sailor”. In 1983 he entered the Astrakhan River School, specializing in navigation. From 1986 to 1992, he worked as a boatswain on foreign vessels. From 1993 to 1997, he worked at small businesses.
In 1997, Bozhenov was elected a deputy of the Astrakhan regional representative assembly. In the AOPS, he became the chairman of the standing commission on the problems of small and medium-sized businesses.
In 1999, he graduated from the law faculty of the Astrakhan State Pedagogical University, and in 2000, he graduated with honors from the Russian Academy of Public Administration under the President of Russia with a degree in State and Municipal Administration. In 2002, he graduated with honors from the Saratov State Social and Economic University (Department of Finance and Credit). PhD in Political Science as of 2007. Honorary Professor of the Astrakhan State Technical University in 2010.
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.
Mayor of Astrakhan
On 18 December 2004, Bozhenov became the 3rd mayor of Astrakhan. Bozhenov's stay at the head of the city administration was marked by conflicts with the regional leadership and election scandals (observers and members of election commissions were expelled from the polling stations by some "fighters"). According to opponents, the ex-mayor's family owns a large amount of real estate in Astrakhan, and areas for the construction of some objects that were needed by Bozhenov or his family appeared many times in a very strange way, as residential buildings burned out in the right places.
The mayor's press service assessed the results of Bozhenov's activities in the city positively: “How he decorated the city, how many new holidays he came up with - the day of the watermelon, the day of the fish soup! Astrakhan entered the Russian Book of Records with the longest cake and the largest round dance around the Kremlin!"Ъ-Газета — Анатолий Бровко попал в ротацию
During the first three years of the city's leadership, the revenue flow to the budget of Astrakhan more than doubled: from 4.7 billion rubles in 2004, to 10.4 billion rubles in 2007. Under Bozhenov's leadership, all main highways were repaired in Astrakhan, the program "From the outskirts to the center" was launched, within the framework of which a massive repair of intra-quarter and intra-courtyard roads began, as well as the installation of children's and sports grounds, of which more than three hundred were built. . 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: “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. By coincidence, the land under the burnt buildings was transferred to the mayor's wife Olga Bozhenova for commercial construction.".Ъ-Газета — Неместная власть
Under his term, the tram service was eliminated.
Member of the State Duma On 4 December 2011, Bozhenov was elected to the State Duma of the sixth convocation from the United Russia party.
Governor of Volgograd Oblast
On 17 January 2012, after the resignation of Anatoly Brovko, Bozhenov, was appointed by President Dmitry Medvedev as acting head (governor) Volgograd Oblast.Указ «О досрочном прекращении полномочий главы администрации Волгоградской области» In the information space of the region, messages about the negative qualities of Bozhenov immediately began to appear, and some messages were left by residents of Astrakhan. (копия на Высота 102) On 30 January, Ivan Novakov, Rector of the Volgograd State Technical University, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Chairman of the Council of Rectors of Universities of the Volgograd Oblast, sent a letter to the Volgograd Oblast Duma and the regional political council of the United Russia party, in which he asks to postpone the discussion of candidates for the post of head of the region at least until March 2012. According to Novakov, this is necessary because the appointment of Sergei Bozhenov in society would cause an extremely ambiguous reaction, thus undermining the authority of Putin.
On 31 January, President Dmitry Medvedev submitted Bozhenov's candidacy to the Volgograd Oblast Duma for vesting him with the powers of the Governor of Volgograd Oblast.Дмитрий Медведев внёс кандидатуру Сергея Боженова для наделения его полномочиями главы администрации Волгоградской области
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. In addition to the haste of such a decision, the communists motivated their decision by the fact that February 2 - the Day of the defeat of the fascist troops at Stalingrad - is a special day for Volgograd and the entire region: “This holy holiday for Volgograd residents cannot be combined with any events. An unambiguously memorable date will fade into the background and the main news will be the approval of the head of the region,” Alevtina Aparina, secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.
On 2 February 2012, by the decision of the members of the Volgograd Oblast Duma, Bozhenov was endowed with the legal powers of the Governor (Head) of Volgograd Oblast. 31 members voted in favor, one abstained, and 6 members from the Communist Party faction refused to vote.
Political scientist Rostislav Turovsky stated: “I think that in this post he will use the same tough management methods as in Astrakhan. The political plan is clear: it must clean up an area that is unfavorable for United Russia. But I have doubts that he will succeed. Local elites are likely to move on to quietly sabotaging his decisions.". A number of other experts believe that the appointment of a representative of another region to the post of head of the region will help to avoid conflicts between representatives of the regional elites.
Alexander Alymov, the chairman of the Astrakhan Movement "Point of Reference", who since 2006 has been in favor of Bozhenov's resignation as Mayor of Astrakhan, on 18 January addressed Volgograd residents with a warning about the consequences of Bozhenov's appointment as governor of the Volgograd Oblast. In particular, it was said about an abnormally high percentage of votes for United Russia, which was confirmed in the subsequent elections.
On 22 February, the Central Election Commission handed over the vacant mandate whom Bozhenov resigned the Duma Mandate to the governor of Astrakhan Oblast, Alexander Zhilkin. He expectedly refused (for the second time after the elections), after which the CEC handed over the vacant mandate to the next in the regional group from the Astrakhan Oblast, Leonid Ogul, the head physician of the Astrakhan clinical maternity hospital.
In early March 2012, Bozhenov submitted to the regional Duma a bill to increase the allowances for high-ranking officials of the regional administration.
In addition, soon after Bozhenov came to the post of head of the regional administration, several expensive foreign-made cars entered the balance of the garage of the regional administration and the regional duma. 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. EuroChem-VolgaKaliy LLC donated six Lexus hybrid cars to the administration for 18 million rubles. After the birthdays of Bozhenov and the chairman of the regional government Khramov, new Toyota Land Cruiser 200 and Infiniti appeared in the garage of the regional administration.
Immediately before the presidential elections, Bozhenov appealed to the voters of the region in support of the program of one of the candidates. Although the name of the candidate was not mentioned, the characteristic rhetoric in favor of the inadmissibility of cardinal changes and the course towards stability, warnings against the dashing 90s clearly indicate campaigning in favor of Putin. After the failed Duma elections for United Russia, in the 2008 presidential election, Putin gained 63% in the region. As noted by a number of experts, the sharp change in the voting results is associated with the arrival of a new head of administration. Yevgeny Minchenko expressed the opinion that “Bozhenov is a master of organizing controlled voting”. So, for example, the opposition on the eve of the elections complained about the organization of voting at enterprises, a large number of absentee ballots (50 thousand versus 27 thousand for the president). In addition, the Volgograd Oblast became the leader in terms of the number of those who voted outside the premises for voting (the so-called "voting at home") - this right was used by 15% of voters who took part in the elections, or 193 thousand against 96 thousand in the Duma elections. As political analyst Aleksander Kynev notes, “The usual percentage of voting at home does not exceed 5-6% on average. If we are talking about tens of percent, this is already an obvious use of the administrative resource ”. It is interesting, for example, that in Alekseevsky district a third of voters voted outside the polling stations, and Putin's result was 85%, in Voroshilovsky district of Volgograd 10% of voters voted at home, Putin received 54% of the votes. 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. Meanwhile, on 23 March, the mayor of Mikhailovka, Gennady Kozhevnikov, was removed from office by a decree of Bozhenov. The official reason was the mayor's failure to comply with court decisions. At the same time, according to political scientist Konstantin Glushenko, Kozhevnikov's resignation may be directly related to the "failure" of voting in the presidential elections on March 4: 45.98% of voters voted for Vladimir Putin in Mikhailovka - this is the lowest rate in the region. The turnout was 58.6%. After that, Bozhenov began to lobby for a project to merge the city and the district of Mikhailovka.