All eyes on Trump for first meeting with Russian President Putin
The last meeting with Russian officials was an embarrassment for Trump, and Putin's strategic skill is a lot to contend with.
Thursday 6 July 2017 13:14, UK
The last time Donald Trump met Russian officials they made him look like a fool.
The White House didn't let the press in to the Oval Office meeting in May, but the Russians took their own photographer and promptly released the pictures.
At a time when Trump's team was accused of colluding with the Russians in the recent election, the photos showed the president having a rare old time with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and the Kremlin's man in Washington, Sergey Kislayak.
It soon emerged during the meeting that Trump had also given the Russians important intelligence gathered by close ally Israel, and had in front of his guests called ex-FBI director James Comey a 'crazy nut job', infuriating America's law enforcement and intelligence communities.
It did nothing to dispel the suspicion in many minds that, wittingly or not, the President of the United States was, and is, a creature of the Kremlin.
In short, it was a car crash of a meeting politically and diplomatically speaking.
Spare a thought then for Trump's team, said to be 'nervous' ahead of his first face-to-face encounter with Vladimir Putin.
Russian intelligence agencies train their agents in the dark arts of human manipulation.
Putin, one of their star graduates, is a Jedi master of understanding his rivals and exploiting their weaknesses.
With the Oval Office photographs he chose to embarrass the US president. When he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel he famously brought a dog, knowing she has a fear of them.
When George W Bush met him he said he looked in Putin's eyes and saw a man he could do business with. Whatever Jedi mind trick Putin was using it would be some time before Bush could shake off its effects.
Putin will already have the measure of the man from intelligence briefings and phone calls between them.
And Trump's preference for Twitter over preserving the mystique of office makes him much easier to read than previous presidents.
It is anyone's guess how the Russian leader chooses to make the most of this encounter.
But there is no doubt that Trump must tread carefully in the way he responds.
He and his team face the most serious allegations that they worked with the man he is meeting, to pervert the course of American democracy and put him in power.
Their every move will be closely observed.