Russia's Medvedev wins credit for caring Kremlin

By Dmitry Solovyov

KALININGRAD, Russia (Reuters) - The new maternity hospital in Russia's westernmost region has state-of-the-art German equipment in its operating theatres and the staff know who to thank: Dmitry Medvedev.

The man almost certain to be elected as Russia's new president next weekend has for the past two years been overseeing four "national projects" to reform healthcare, education, housing and agriculture.

The projects are the biggest political undertaking the technocrat Medvedev has had to handle to date, and his management of them gives an insight into how he will perform when he takes over from his mentor Vladimir Putin as president.

After spending $10 billion on the projects last year alone, the Kremlin's public relations machine is also using them as a showcase to convince any wavering voters to back Medvedev.

"Medvedev was not scared ... and got down to work (on the national projects) without batting an eyelid," Putin, who has endorsed Medvedev to replace him, said earlier this month.

Medvedev inspected the new facilities at Kaliningrad's maternity hospital last month on a campaign trip and the visit was broadcast into homes across Russia.

"So here we are, walking along Dmitry Medvedev's path," regional health chief Yelena Klyuikova said with pride as she later showed visiting journalists around the hospital.

The still empty corridors smell of fresh paint. The hospital has a new X-ray machine so advanced it communicates automatically with a maintenance computer in Germany.