The article starts with considering theoretical problems of the concept of the Other that points to the out-group in dialogical (co)relation with which the identity of the Self is constructed. This concept describes a fundamental and manifold phenomena that needs to be specified and classified. The author argues that a solution of theoretical issues about the figure of the Other lays in the field of empirical research. In particular, the issue of “significance” of the Other for constituting the Self could be decided only on the basis of systematic study of social practices that essentially rely on (co)relation with particular out-groups. Political rhetoric could be a good field for study of symbolic functions of the Other and factors that determine its significance. Shared representations of the Other are not only an important element of identity construction but also an instrument of the symbolic politics, i.e. public activity aimed at production and dissemination / intrusion of competing visions of social reality. The article demonstrates how a study of patterns of representation of particular macro political communities allows to assess their relative“ significance”. Basing on theoretical insights from the literature the author proposes a research method that includes manual coding of the frames of representation of the Other in the context of legitimization of political course with subsequent counting of their frequency added by discourse analysis of each group of frames. This method is tried on the case of comparative analysis of frames of representation of the American and Chinese Others in the rhetoric of the presidents of the Russian Federation (from 2000 to 2015).