Donald Trump reluctantly signed a bill imposing new sanctions on Russia yesterday, with Moscow saying the move ended hopes for better relations between the two countries.

The US president himself called the measure “seriously flawed” and attacked Congress for forcing his hand.

Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian prime minister, said the new sanctions were tantamount to a "full-scale trade war".

He said that the move showed the Trump administration was utterly powerless. "The hope that our relations with the new American administration would improve is finished," he wrote on Facebook.

The Russian prime minister suggested the sanctions were an attempt by the "US establishment" to remove Mr Trump from power.

"The issue of new sanctions came about, primarily, as another way to knock Trump down a peg. New steps are to come, and they will ultimately aim to remove him from power," he wrote.

Mr Medvedev later tweeted: "The Trump administration has shown its total weakness by handing over executive power to Congress in the most humiliating way.

"The US establishment fully outwitted Trump. The President is not happy about the sanctions, yet he could not but sign the bill."