After no end of drama, Trump, Putin take to summit stage

Before coming to Europe, US President Donald Trump raised eyebrows by predicting that Monday's historic Helsinki summit with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would be the "easiest" stage of his tour.

The rest of his trip, to Brussels and Britain, has indeed crackled with controversy so far.

But new indictments from an investigation into alleged Russian interference in US politics have dropped with embarrassing timing, focusing attention again on whether the Trump campaign may have benefited from Putin's covert help to win the White House.

And it is far from the only charged issue to loom over the two leaders' first full-blown encounter.

British accusations that Russia unleashed a deadly nerve agent in an English city, the fears of NATO allies that Trump is not serious about defending the Western alliance, and Putin's support for the Syrian regime after years of civil war also form part of the crowded backdrop.

Putin will head to the Finnish capital on a diplomatic high after presiding over today's World Cup final in Moscow, basking in the glow of a trouble-free tournament that burnished Russia's credentials.

Ahead of the leaders' first one-on-one summit, the Kremlin said it considers Trump a "negotiating partner".

"The state of bilateral relations is very bad," Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Friday. "We have to start to set them right."