The article deals with the problem of representing Russian Other as a factor of the European identity formation. Analyzing European media coverage on contemporary gender order, the author comes to the conclusion on the ambivalence of the role of Russia in
the process of the «Europeanness» formation. On the one hand, the image of the Russian gender order as different from European, backward, aims to strengthen the European identity. On the other, Russia is represented as having alternative ways of solving contemporary gender problems, thus weakening European Union consolidation.
