On July 16, a summit between the presidents of Russia and the United States will take place for the first time in eight years.

It comes as US President Donald Trump is under increasing pressure over his 2016 presidential campaign's alleged ties to the Russian Government.

Meanwhile Russia's relationship with the rest of the world is increasingly fraught.

So what would President Putin like from Mr Trump in the name of better relations?

Sanctions relief

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In the last decade, the United States and its allies have levelled several rounds of sanctions against Russia in response to human rights abuses, the annexation of Crimea and invasion of Ukraine, election meddling, hacking and foreign assassination attempts.

Several of these sanctions bills were passed under the Trump administration, and enforced by Mr Trump himself.

Mr Putin is desperate to alleviate these sanctions, not just because of their effect on the Russian economy, but because many of the sanctions specifically target the Russian oligarchs, his closest allies, locking up their overseas assets.

Mr Putin has raised sanctions with Mr Trump before.

When they first met in Germany in mid-2017, Mr Trump said his Russian counterpart had raised the issue of adoptions with him.

Discussion of adoption programs in Russia is inexorably linked with the 2012 Magnitsky Act - a sanctions bill passed by the Obama administration.

In response to the bill, Mr Putin banned Americans from adopting Russian children, ending a 20-year program which had seen more than 50,000 Russian orphans adopted into American families, and cancelling hundreds of adoptions which were already in progress.

At this meeting with Mr Trump, and in meetings with several Trump officials, Mr Putin and his agents have offered to restore this program in exchange for dropping the Magnitsky Act.

So far, Mr Trump hasn't taken him up on the offer.

Recognition of Crimea annexation

In 2014 Mr Putin invaded the Crimean peninsula and declared it to be part of Russia.

The Obama administration and European Union reacted furiously, sanctioning the government, kicking Russia out of the G8 forum, and demanding the return of Crimea to Ukraine.

But for two years, Mr Trump has indicated a willingness to recognise Russia's action.

In mid-2016 he said he understood that the Crimeans wanted to be part of Russia anyway.

And in the past month, Mr Trump has blamed the annexation of Crimea on former US President Barack Obama and suggested that Russia should return to the G8 forum.

The White House said the President is not intending to recognise Russia's claim to Crimea, but there is widespread concern among strategic experts that he may decide to do it anyway.

US out of Syria

The Trump administration's policy on Syria has been confusing.

The US President has alternated between calling for the complete withdrawal of American military and intelligence personnel from the region, to launching cruise missile strikes on military targets.

Syria is a close ally of Russia, and is the site of the Russian Navy's Tartus base, its only overseas strategic asset, and its only repair and refuel spot on the Mediterranean Sea.

Russia's support of the Assad regime has drawn strong criticism from both the Obama and Trump administrations, but simultaneously, Mr Trump has suggested that he is happy to leave Russia to deal with the problem.

"We'll be coming out of Syria very soon," he said in March this year.

"Let the other people take care of it now."

Giving Mr Putin carte blanche over Syria would see the end of any organised resistance to the Assad regime.

Acceptance of his tampering denial

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While the White House and State Department have repeatedly said Mr Trump agrees that Russia meddled in the 2016 US presidential election, he has contradicted those statements on several occasions.

During the campaign, Mr Trump said the hacking attempts by Russia could just as easily have been conducted by China, or "somebody sitting on their bed who weighs 400 pounds".

After his first meeting with Mr Putin last year, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Mr Trump had accepted Mr Putin's denial that Russia was involved in the hacking and disinformation attempt.

And only last week, Mr Trump tweeted, "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!"

While the US President has told reporters that he intends to "mention" the election meddling to Mr Putin, he did not indicate whether he intends to try and stop any future attempts to influence international elections.

Open trade avenues

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It's no secret that leaders of countries traditionally allied with the US are not getting along with Mr Trump.

There is particular tension between Mr Trump and the leaders of Canada, France, Germany and the European Union, as the likelihood of a trade war increases.

Mr Trump is putting tariffs on Canadian and European products, and their intention is to return fire with tariffs of their own.

The US President has directed strong criticism at German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying "the people of Germany are turning against their leadership", and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling him "very dishonest and weak".

This has led to a perceptible shift in rhetoric from European leaders.

They appear more open to improving relations with Russia, as they seek trade partners to make up any shortfalls caused by a Trans-Atlantic trade war.

Mr Putin would love Mr Trump to fracture the old Western alliances, and open doors previously closed to Russia.