For Russian cruise line operators, their ship is coming in.

MOSCOW ON THE HARBOR: Russia isn’t exactly the first country that comes to mind when you think of luxury cruise ships--or even the second, or the third, or the 20th.

In fact, as Russian emigre comedian Yakov Smirnoff says: “In Russia they don’t have the Love Boat; they have the Love Barge.”

Nevertheless, Russian cruise ships are becoming an increasingly common sight in the Port of Los Angeles. This week, the 650-passenger Maxim Gorkiy berthed here for the second time in two years, steaming in from Mexico and spending about a day before heading to San Francisco. Last year, the inelegantly named Kazakhstan cruise ship also made Los Angeles one of its ports of call. And in March, the Russian cruise ship Odessa will stop by.

“The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming!” joked Port of Los Angeles marketing manager Karen Tozer. “We don’t see a lot of Russian cruise ships, but they do come in occasionally. They’re really very nice ships.”

So who takes a cruise in a Russian cruise ship? Well, it’s not Russians. Tozer said almost all of the passengers aboard the Maxim Gorkiy were Germans.

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SMOOTH TRANSITION: A month ago, it looked as if Rep. Jane Harman (D-Marina del Rey) would lose a connection to the Pentagon’s top chief with the departure of Defense Secretary Les Aspin.

Aspin--a friend since her days in the Carter Administration--helped Harman get on powerful House committees. And their friendship didn’t suffer when she and other lawmakers successfully lobbied to keep the Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo open.

Harman, however, didn’t have the same ties to Bobby Ray Inman, President Clinton’s first choice for Pentagon chief. And one opponent in this year’s election predicted she would “lose her sympathetic ear.”

But with Clinton’s latest nomination, Deputy Defense Secretary William Perry, Harman once again may have a friend in the top spot. She knew Perry also from the Carter Administration.

“He is an excellent choice,” she said. “He’s very good for the South Bay and very good for this Administration.”

At the very least, he has set foot in the neighborhood. In June, he went to a Hughes Aircraft Co. plant in El Segundo to survey some company projects.

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HORSE POWER: Rancho Palos Verdes needs more money to maintain its long-cherished equestrian trails and to keep tabs on horse vaccinations.

The solution, city officials said, would be $50 horse licenses--a proposal bound to rile horse enthusiasts.

Trouble is, that’s only enough to cover the cost of handing out the licenses.

Then there’s the question of who gets charged: the horse owner, the stable owner or the rider. (The horse, it can be assumed, won’t pay).

Those wary of the proposal argue that it’s the horses that are getting singled out.

“What about hikers and others who use the trails?” said Hirsh Marantz, vice president of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Horsemen’s Assn.

So it’s back to the drawing boards.

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COFFER CRUNCH: With a little more than a month to go until the election, Torrance’s mayoral candidates have amassed sizable war chests in the race to succeed Katy Geissert.

Councilman Bill Applegate had $52,678 in cash as of Jan. 22, and Councilwoman Dee Hardison had $27,250. Applegate has spent $22,621 so far, and Hardison has shelled out $13,558.

In the race for City Council, urban planner Jack Messerlian has $10,198, the most of any of the 11 candidates running. Retired accountant Marcia Cribbs leads spending with $10,111.

All that may seem like a lot of money. But Hardison says she and other candidates in the race for City Council are finding it tougher raising cash than in previous elections.

“It’s a sign of the times,” Hardison said. “There’s less money out there, so everyone is pretty much drawing from the same sources.” Even the big spender in 1992’s council campaign, El Camino college professor Burton Fletcher, appears to have slowed down. He shelled out $61,000 in ’92. He has a way to go to match that. He’s spent only $2,574.55.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“If I need to do something, it gets done before it gets dark. I’m telling you, this madness has got to stop.”

--Sally Ann Hoofe of Inglewood, on how gang violence, which killed five people and injured six in two days last week, has changed the way she lives.