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To critics, the fact that it was Mr. Biden who extended the invitation for the summit to Mr. Putin in April, when Russian troops were massing on the border with Ukraine, looks like a concession or an unjustified reward. After all, with his domestic popularity flagging and Russian parliamentary elections looming in September, the image of defending Russian interests in high-stakes talks with the American president could help Mr. Putin.

“He does not plan on signing any agreements,” an aide to Mr. Navalny, Leonid Volkov, wrote on Facebook of Mr. Putin’s motives. “He’s coming, essentially, for one photo, literally like fans dream of a selfie with their idol.”

Key to the summit’s outcome, analysts say, will be the tone the leaders take with each other. In his interview with NBC taped last week, Mr. Putin praised Mr. Biden as a “professional” who had spent “just about all his conscious life in politics.” That, Mr. Putin said, made Mr. Biden the opposite of Mr. Trump — a leader who, to the Kremlin’s disappointment, never delivered on the friendlier Russia policy that he had promised.