Abstract: This article examines the effectiveness of economic sanctions that are being applied today by states and their associations to realize a wide range of objectives. The authors, expanding the boundaries of the functional purpose of sanctions, propose the concept of differentiating goals, which, in their opinion, simplifies the assessment of the political effectiveness of this instrument of international influence. The authors distinguish between real and declared objectives of sanctions, substantiate the role of sanctions as a means of solving their own internal political tasks and communication tools within the international system, anticipating their results with a brief overview and characterization of stages in the studies of the effectiveness of sanctions. Solving the tasks, the authors turn to the content analysis of specialized scientific literature on relevant topics, classification method, highlighting historical periods and functional properties of economic sanctions, as well as to study specific situations that support the assumptions. The authors come to the conclusion that with the help of sanctions, states can pursue not only the goal to change the behavior of another state against which they are actually directed, but also other goals, often hidden behind official statements. Such goals may include elimination of domestic political problems and the transfer of signals to other participants of the international system, acting in a particular sanction case by a third party. They emphasize that the sanctions can serve the purposes connected both directly with the sanction and with the actual authorizing state, as well as with the goals concerning the international system as a whole, thereby marking new directions for research in the context of modern political science.

Abstract: The article explores new means of international political influence, namely cyber-financial instruments which are a consequence of convergence of traditional financial measures of pressure with the already widespread cyber-space operations. The author raises general issues related to convergence in politics, considers the prerequisites for their emergence, objects, types and advantages of cyber-financial instruments of foreign policies of modern States, highlighting that they allow the actor who decided to use them to remain incognito and not to destroy the beneficial relationships of economic dependence. Pursuant to the goals established, the author refers to a content analysis of specialized scientific literature on relevant topics, a method of classification highlighting the types of cyber financial instruments, as well as to the study of specific situations that confirm the assumptions. The author comes to the conclusion that a number of new instruments of foreign policy influence which can be called cyber-financial instruments are emerging on the background of interpenetration, convergence of financial infrastructure and cyberspace. Increasingly, these are found to be the preferred means of fighting in the global political arena, used directly by States, their unions, and through their proxy actors. Alongside, the use of these tools brings both greater effectiveness of international pressure and new risks and threats.