MOSCOW — With the long-awaited first meeting between President Vladimir V. Putin and President Trump finally in sight, the Kremlin is hoping at a minimum to inject some clarity into a relationship so far marred by contradictions, anxiety, scattered recriminations and, on occasion, astonishing bonhomie.

“As for the policy of the U.S. administration, we have to understand first what it will involve,” Sergei A. Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, said last week in Moscow at a conference of foreign policy experts from both countries. “This is what we are actually trying to do, in an utmost active manner, right now.”

Whatever the outcome of the encounter on Friday — which will be on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit meeting of world leaders in Hamburg, Germany, but is expected to overshadow it — the Kremlin is betting that Mr. Putin can stage-manage the event so that he comes out looking like the stronger party.