Donald Trump blamed Congress for worsening relations with Russia, which accused the U.S. president of caving in to his legislators by signing a law that could keep sanctions in place for years.

"Our relationship with Russia is at an all-time & very dangerous low," Trump wrote Thursday on Twitter. "You can thank Congress, the same people that can't even give us HCare!" he said, referring to the failed effort to overhaul health care.

The Trump tweet drew a quick response from Senator Tom Cotton, who appeared with Trump just a day earlier to promote immigration legislation that the Arkansas Republican is co-sponsoring. He said the blame for deteriorating U.S.-Russia relationship falls on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"He's the one that has invaded countries who are our partners, he's the one that's provided missiles that have shot civilian aircraft out of the sky, he's the one that's meddled in western democracies to include our own, when Russian intelligence services hacked into those emails and released them," Cotton said on MSNBC.

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The exchange underscored the increasing strain between Trump and his own party in Congress amid multiple, expanding congressional and FBI investigations into Russia's meddling in the 2016 election and whether anyone in the Trump campaign colluded in the effort. The sanctions legislation gives lawmakers the power to block the president from lifting them and was passed in the House and Senate by overwhelming, veto-proof margins.

Medvedev's Response

While Putin has been silent since Trump signed the sanctions law, which strengthens punitive measures imposed over Russia's intervention in Ukraine and its election interference, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Wednesday criticized the sanctions and belittled the U.S. president.

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