Russia as the Other in the 2016 Presidential Election in the United States

This article is devoted to the "Russian factor" in the political struggle between Democrats and Republicans during the last presidential election in the United States. The author appeals to the social constructivist methodology that gives opportunity for better understanding the large-scale foregrounding of the Russian "Other" in American public and political discourse in correlation with the crisis in the US-Russia relations as well as the identity crises in the US itself. One of the main author's ideas is that both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump exploited "Russian card" for their own political goals while Vladimir Putin has been playing his own "American card". As a result, the anti-Trump consensus became also anti-Russian and investigation of alleged Russia's meddling in the 2016 election are creating a real stumbling in bilateral relations. Author summarizes that any foreign meddling in the American electoral process undoubtedly merits the most thorough scrutiny and investigation. Yet it does not cancel out the sociopolitical crisis in the United States that became the principal cause of the unexpected outcome of the presidential election.