In the modern world, mass media are a key source of formation and transmission of ideas about reality. Considerable interest of researchers focuses on the socio-political perception of other countries, based on emotional-associative, metaphorical, and other linguocognitive means, which become an integral part of political discourse.

Within the framework of this study, the concept of nation brand refers to the areas of theoretical and practical activities aimed at the process of building, measuring and managing the reputation and of the countries (Anholt, Govers, 2022, p. 8). At the same time, the concept of a country's brand is associated with a set of distinctive features of a country that contribute to highlighting its advantages against the background of competition with other countries and attracting the attention of interested parties (Anholt, 2021, p. 63; Anishchenko, Smyk, 2019, p. 8).

The manipulative technologies led to the fact that the nation brand of Russia reflected a decrease in its position by 8 points in 2022 compared to the previous year. As a result, Russia took 24th place in the global ranking of nation branding (Brand Finance Nation Report, 2022, p. 93).

One of the evidence of this is a number of studies (Dinnie, 2021, p. 68) showing that only 17% of the total number of publications about Russia in the US mass media can be assessed as positive.

The nation brand as the media image of Russia constituent, formed by many US media, appears as inconsistent with the values inherent in American culture, alien to the spirit of modern civilization.

This, in turn, creates obstacles in the settlement of the political crisis between the United States and Russia, in the establishment of interstate relations between the two countries. The nation brand of Russia can become an effective regulator for overcoming the political crisis between the Unites States and Russia, building resilient bilateral relations between the two countries for a more sustainable world.

Analyzing the cognitive formats of the media image of Russia in the US media, it should be noted that from the position of today it fits into the media format "alien". If at the end of the XX century this media image came down to the format of "other" and “different”, then at the present stage its drifting towards alienation and transformation into the format of "alien" is felt.

The US media stereotype of the image of Russia was demonstrated by the combination of positive, neutral and negative types of tonality, and their ratings.

From a qualitative standpoint, this study found a high degree of association between the topic of the US media coverage and the tone (positive, negative, and neutral) towards Russia: χ² = 29.78, p < .10 for a negative tone; χ² = 68.32, p < .09 for a neutral tone; χ² = 1.9, p < .08 for a positive tone.

The tonality of the articles reflecting the prospects for Russia-US cooperation was mostly negative throughout the period analyzed. The tendency of the treatment of the topics reflecting the type of a tone under discussion was identical both at the beginning and at the end of the period.

The US media construct the image of Russia as a cultural and intellectual power of immense size, on the one hand, and a nuclear and totalitarian power with imperial ambitions, striving for expansionism, on the other hand.