SHE is five years old, 2500 miles from home, and about to undergo

heart surgery, but Albina Taraskina had a big smile for her visitors

yesterday at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow.

Rangers' Soviet player Oleg Kuznetsov dropped in with his wife Ala and

daughter Katya, four, to help the girl banish her homesickness before

her operation tomorrow.

Her life expectancy in Sverdlovsk was being measured in months before

her 31-year-old mother Davina's plea for help was answered by Glasgow

heart surgeon Mr James Pollock.

Born with a defective heart valve, the girl underwent a nine-hour

operation at the age of 14 months when she weighed only five kilos. By

the end of last year, however, she was unable to walk more than 15 yards

or play with children her own age.