President Donald Trump will soon have the high-profile summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin that he has sought for years. But with days to go until Mondays talks in Helsinki, Finland, the people with the highest stakes in the meeting an American public still rattled by Russias 2016 election interference and key U.S. allies wary of Putins agenda in their neighborhoods have less to celebrate.

Trumps natural inclination is to admire Putin and to reach out to him because of his affinity for autocrats, said Charles Kupchan, the top White House Europe official under former President Barack Obama . Meanwhile, the president is publicly critical of democratically-elected leaders in U.S.-friendly countries.

On Thursday, Trump called Putin a competitor and implied the Russian leader had every right to deny election meddling. Hours later, a U.K. newspaper published an interview quoting him disparaging British Prime Minister Theresa May an echo of his attacks on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and weak Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

From Moscows point of view, exploiting that dynamic is the best way to get something out of the summit.

Putin has already concluded that Trump is too hamstrung by Congress, experienced U.S. officials and the American publics questions about Russias role in the 2016 elections to deliver any big transformation in U.S.-Russia policy, according to Michael Kofman, a Russia expert at the Center for Naval Analyses.

Kofman pointed to the Trump administrations failure to act on Russian grievances like seized diplomatic compounds and inability to block sweeping new Congressional sanctions imposed last summer.

The Russians walked away with a clear impression that he does not control Washington, D.C., Kofman said. He cited Putins vicious remarks last year, when the Russian leader noted, Its difficult to conduct a dialogue with people who confuse Austria and Australia.

But that doesnt mean theres nothing for the Russians to gain. The Russian vision for Mondays meeting, which includes a one-on-one session with no aides present and no formal record of the conversation, features Putin as big burly truth-teller and Trump as overawed listener dissatisfied with the U.S.-dominated global status quo.

The optics of it are great validation for Vladimir Putin as he starts a fourth term [and] Putin is a master troll who will use the meeting to troll the hell out of the United States and the U.S. media and the U.S. establishment, Kofman said.

Putin is also likely to exploit Trumps decades-old sympathy for the Russian worldview, one thats skeptical of traditional American allies and the men and women working for the U.S. government. And hell aim to capitalize on Trumps conviction that Americas fraught relationship with Russia is the fault of past U.S. leaders rather than Putins own belligerent actions.

All the courting and cajoling could result in instant gratification, like Trump saying something directly undermining the U.S.-constructed world order for instance, on the Russian invasion of Ukraine or the NATO security alliance that would send American officials into a tizzy.

Putin might even offer Trump a win that even Russia skeptics would appreciate by agreeing to extend an Obama-era arms control treaty known as New START to dampen an otherwise growing nuclear arms race between the U.S. and Russia.

But more broadly, Putin will be deftly playing Trump insecurities, ego, fact-free opinions and all with a long-term goal in mind: reshaping world politics by boosting Russias stature while cutting America down to size, especially by targeting its unique alliance network.

Through trade fights and other disputes with allies, Trump is taking off the values element of U.S. foreign policy, the idea of a shared outlook or ideology hes acting like just another power, Kofman said.