The research examines economic sanctions as a tool of foreign policy and a central instrument used to pressure targeted states to alter their behavior. Through a comparative analysis of the cases of Iran and Russia (2000–2025), the study finds that economic sanctions have created significant economic and political challenges. However, both states adopted various resilience strategies, including implementing alternative policies, strengthening the domestic economy, expanding international alliances, and seeking new—particularly Asian—markets.
The analysis further shows that the effectiveness of sanctions is closely tied to a state's capacity for resilience and its possession of sufficient economic resources. Therefore, the research aims to identify the most important economic impacts on both countries and examine the strategies they employed to reduce the effectiveness of sanctions on the Russian and Iranian economies.
The research was divided into four sections. The first section took the conceptual framework of economic sanctions. The second section took the economic sanctions imposed on Iran and their effects from the period (2000-2025). The third section dealt with the economic sanctions imposed on Russia and their effects for the period (2000-2025). The fourth section was a comparison between the Iranian and Russian experiences.