U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert announced Wednesday that it had informed Congress of new sanctions on Russia that will go into effect at the end of August. Nauert stated the sanctions were, in part, a response to the alleged Russian-organized nerve agent assassination attempt on an ex-Russian agent and his daughter in the UK this March.

The sanctions were determined under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Control and Warfare Elimination Act which passed in 1991, and contains a two-step sanction plan, with a second round of penalties following the first if Russia chooses not to comply.

In the first set, so called “duel use technologies,” related to US military technology, would be targeted, and the sanctions will eventually reach Russian exports, the state-owned bank loans and financial aid system, as well as other technologies with links to US security, The State reported Friday.

Russia has 90 days to assuage fears of its chemical and biological weapons use and give promises it won’t do so again, while also permitting access to on-site inspections. If Russia doesn’t comply, the State Department said it would impose a second round of sanctions “as specified by the statute.”

The ruble, in the wake of the US announcement, has fallen, trading at its lowest rate since 2016. Russian stocks also tumbled, with shares of the Russian state-run airline losing 12% before bouncing back to only being down 4.4%.

It comes as Russia struggles to recover from a years-long recession. According to the Federal Service for State Statistics, on Friday the country’s GDP grew 1.8% in the second quarter of the year, up from 1.4% in the first quarter.

The State Department announcement also arrives after a tradeoff of tariffs between the two countries beginning when the US leveled 25% on Russian steel and 10% on Russian aluminum in March. Russia retaliated with her own import tariffs of 25% to 40% on US goods related to the manufacturing, construction, oil, gas, and fiber optics industries.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the UN, tweeted, “the theater of the absurd continues” on Wednesday, while Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia would be looking into proper retaliatory measures on Thursday.

Russia had previously put on hold a plan to ban American goods in response to sanctions from the US placed in May. Putin had stepped back from the ban in the lead up to his meeting with President Trump at a meeting in Helsinki mid-July.

The same day, Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the Kremlin “totally reject any allegations of possible Russian government involvement over what happened in Salisbury” calling the sanctions illegal, while denying Russia had anything else to do with chemical weapons, according to Reuters.

Peskov categorized the Trump administration as an “unpredictable participant in international affairs,” stating that “President Putin said in Helsinki that Russia still has hopes for the creation of a constructive relationship with Washington.”

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, on Friday, knocked Washington, stating, “If they ban banking operations or the use of any currency we will call it the declaration of an economic war.” He went onto to say they would response “economically, politically, or in any other way, if need be.” He also criticized the US for what he said was the forced purchase by the EU of US liquefied natural gas and the stymied the new construction of a Baltic gas pipeline to Germany.

A British government spokesman praised the State Department announcement, saying it backed “the strong response to the use of a chemical weapon on the streets of Salisbury,” and that “it sends an unequivocal message to Russia that its provocative reckless behavior will not go unchallenged.”

The news comes on the heels of Pence promising on Wednesday to fulfill Trump’s order to start creating a new Space Force for the “next battle,” which includes threats from China and Russia.