President Clinton flies to Moscow today for a summit with President Yeltsin, but with little to offer as Russia faces economic crisis and political uncertainty.
In addition, both leaders are seen as weakened by domestic troubles. Calls for their resignations are coming from opponents in both countries.
Some observers are comparing Mr Clinton's visit with the one made by President Nixon to Moscow in June 1974, when he was struggling with the Watergate crisis which resulted in his resignation two months later.
The New York Times is calling the summit a "surreal encounter in which real diplomatic business will be hard to transact". It would have been better to postpone the meeting until the political and economic situation was clearer, but "since both sides have decided to go ahead as planned, President Clinton can try to put the visit to good use," the paper says.
The compromise agreement reached yesterday in Moscow between the acting Prime Minister, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin, and parliamentary leaders in the Duma has been welcomed cautiously in Washington. But there is uncertainty about what it contains on the economic front.
If it involves what Washington would see as "backsliding" on the economic reform programme of the outgoing government the US would be seriously concerned. Mr Clinton's main message at the summit will be to urge Russia to continue on the path of economic reform and reject any return to increased state controls of the economy and the free market.
The US Energy Secretary and ambassador to the UN, Mr Bill Richardson, described the reported agreement on political changes limiting Mr Yeltsin's powers as a "very favourable development". But a White House spokesman took a more cautious line: "It's hard to comment at this point until they have a government, they formally have their economic team and they formally lay out their economic programme, but certainly it is encouraging."
However, the former national security adviser, Mr Zbigniew Brzezinski, said the compromise jeopardised reform: "I fear that it signifies a triple setback, a setback for economic reforms, a slowdown of democratisation and a setback for American advocacy both of reforms and of democracy in Russia."
As Mr Clinton returned to the White House from his holiday on Martha's Vineyard to prepare for the summit and his trip to Ireland, it was hoped that Mr Chernomyrdin's appointment as prime minister would be ratified by the Duma before the US President arrives in Moscow tomorrow morning. The high-powered US delegation would then be able to press Mr Chernomyrdin not to abandon the path of economic reform in return for support from the Communist Party in the Duma and the so-called "oligarchs" from the banking and business interests.
Any retreat from the reforms planned by the previous government under Mr Sergei Kiriyenko, until his dismissal last week, will jeopardise the next payment from the $22.6 billion rescue package from the International Monetary Fund due in mid-September. The US side will have the most influential voice on whether this payment should go ahead.
President Clinton will have two sessions of talks with President Yeltsin at the Kremlin, besides attending an official banquet. Mr Clinton and the US delegation will be able to assess at first hand the state of Mr Yeltsin's health and his prospects for continuing in power until the next election in 2000 as he has promised.
But just as important from the US point of view will be President Clinton's address to what are described as "the next generation of Russian leaders" at the Moscow Institute of International Relations. This will be an opportunity for Mr Clinton to preach his economic reform message to young political and business leaders over the heads of the present Russian leadership.
Mr Clinton will also have meetings with the present heads of the political parties in the Duma and with regional leaders.
The summit will cover foreign policy areas such as NATO expansion, Kosovo and Russian nuclear co-operation with Iran, on which the US and Russia have different views.
The US side hopes that an agreement can be reached during the summit on a reduction in the amount of plutonium stocks held by both countries. There is little chance, however, of agreement on further cuts in their strategic nuclear warheads until the Duma ratifies the Start-2 treaty on a partial reduction. This was meant to be a precondition for this summit but was dropped by the US in June to allow the meeting go ahead, a step which it probably now regrets.