In meeting with Putin, experts fear Trump will give more than he receives

"Whenever he sees me, he says," I did not do that, "and I really believe that when he tells me that, he thinks so," Mr. Trump said. about Mr. Putin. "I think he's very insulted by this, which is not a good thing for our country."

McFaul predicted that Mr. Putin would be a great interlocutor at a face-to-face meeting, knowledgeable about US foreign policy and determined to use that knowledge to undermine the policies of the US. administration, particularly in Ukraine

. Trump's approach to autocrats, Mr. Haass said, is that he regards these relationships as having no history, no baggage that limits the way these leaders can to act. These are purely personal meetings, without compromises or compromises that usually characterize the summit meetings.

Trump is not the first president to focus on strengthening relations with Russian leaders. Bill Clinton did it with Boris Yeltsin; Mr. Bush tried to do it with Mr. Putin; Barack Obama cultivated Dmitry A. Medvedev, who served as President between the terms of Mr. Putin. But only Mr. Trump did most of his program.

This does not mean that he and Mr. Putin are short of material matters to discuss. Some analysts have speculated that Mr Trump would seek a common ground on Syria. During the transition, his aides had planned to lift the sanctions against Russia in exchange for Russia's cooperation with the United States against Iran in Syria. The idea has fallen by the wayside, but some wonder if the president could revive it.

"Trump trying to get Putin moving against the Iranians in Syria?" Said Martin S. Indyk, a former US ambassador to Israel. "And if so, what price is he willing to pay for this?"

Such a proposal would make Mr. Trump's meeting with Mr. Putin more substantial than the one with Mr. Kim or Mr. Xi. But to persuade Russia to change its strategy in Syria would be difficult, and the lifting of sanctions on Moscow would cause another break with the European allies already bruised by Mr Trump. In short, the President should engage in the heavy diplomatic responsibilities that he has hitherto avoided.

As Henry Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State, once wrote: "It is dangerous to trust the personality or to negotiate. skills to break the blockages; they can not redeem the flaws of an unthinking strategy. "