The article represents the results of research into the role of intercultural communication, in the political discourse of Russia and the United States. This research project allowed the authors to obtain a large array of applied results on the state of the rhetoric of leading politicians in Russia and the US (from more than 150 sources) using linguistic and cultural comparative analyses. The presence of a scientific background and the methodological positions on various aspects of relations between Russia and the United States allowed the authors to carry out this study; the object of this was intercultural communication between politicians, whilst the subject was an analysis of general differences in Russian and American politicians' use of speech strategies and tactics, and their expressive means as a functional of political dialogue. The study of nationalcultural markers of speech strategies was considered by the authors, on the one hand, as specific mechanisms of politicians' verbal behavior, and on the other hand as applied problems which reflect the choice of expressive means used by American politicians, and which further reflects the presence of an ethnic component through which national values can be judged, such as the interests of Russia and USA, from the position of international cooperation. The use of discursive, communicative-pragmatic, and rhetorical methods allowed the authors to systematize the discursive-communicative strategies and tactics used by the participants in political dialogue between Russia and the United States, and allowed them to compare their national and cultural characteristics. © Editorial Board Polis (Political Studies).