On Wednesday, Donald Trump signed a new bill to impose a new package of economic sanctions against Russia to punish the Kremlin for its interference in the US presidential elections.

The new legislation, which also included sanctions against Iran and North Korea, was criticized by several European Union countries, which expressed concern about the economic impact in the region, and of course, raised anger in Moscow.  

"It is a declaration of a full-fledged economic war on Russia," Dmitry Medvedev, Russian prime minister wrote in a statement on Facebook, noting that the new sanctions "ends hopes for improving our relations with the new US administration."

He added that the Donald Trump administration "has shown its total weakness by handing over executive power to Congress in the most humiliating way," as reported in EFE.

Moscow had already retaliated last week when Congress passed the new bill imposing sanctions by ordering Washington a reduction of 755 people at the US embassy and consulates in Russia - and denying access to a US warehouse in Moscow.

According to The New York Times, President Trump said the new legislation was “significantly flawed,” raising questions about how he would enforce it.

"The US establishment fully outwitted Trump," Medvedev said, adding that the issue of new sanctions on Russia "came about, primarily, as another way to knock Trump down a peg."

  He said that Trump will be subjected to new attacks, which "will ultimately aim to remove him from power."

 The sanctions approved by the US against Russia include limitations on the amount of money US citizens can invest in Russian energy projects and adds obstacles to American companies that want to do business with Russia, as reported in the BBC.

While Trump signed the bill in Washington, Vice President Mike Pence, speaking in Montenegro, committed American support to eight Balkan nations and warned against Russian encroachment in the region. Russia, he said, is an “unpredictable country that casts a shadow from the east,” as reported in The NY Times. 

In Balkan countries like Serbia and Montenegro, population is divided between supporters of a stronger EU leadership or following Moscow, an old ally and trade partner.