Sanction

By intensifying sanctions against Islamic Republic of Iran, identification and development of mechanisms to sell crude oil has gained attention among most experts and oil industry activists. Limitations for financial transactions and settlements are one of the fundamental challenges in international oil transactions; thus, various solutions are proposed to solve the limitation. Using capability of virtual currencies is one of the proposed suggestions for petroleum transaction under sanctions but there is a research gap in finding whether and which one of these currencies are able to be used in petroleum transactions in present condition. In this study, performed by analysis and quantitative approach, indices are introduced for choosing a valid currency for international transactions, and subsequently are confirmed by experts. The indices are ranked by the experts through TOPSIS method and are studied on the most suitable virtual currencies to find the best suit for petroleum transactions. The results reveal that Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether are respectively the best, second and third choice for this end. It is noteworthy that some experts might believe the virtual currency market size may not meet the high volume of crude oil transactions, making it unsuitable. Although current study has shown that there would be no problem in covering the whole petroleum market for Iran’s crude oil by virtual currencies platform, if the concerns remain, virtual currency platform could be used for selling Iran’s crude oil temporarily and partially through various channels.

The research on Russian foreign policy in recent decades, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has always been a topic of analytical interest to scholars of foreign policy and international relations. As the legacy of the former Soviet Union, the Russian Federation still retains many of its hardware components in various forms. However, since 2000, Putin with his intellectual spectrum, backed by the factors of his power, the restoration of Russian credibility at regional and global levels, as well as the process of Eurasianism and Neo-Eurasianism was included in the foreign policy agenda. Accordingly, the questions of the research are, how has Russia behaved in its foreign policy in the post-2000 period whilst pursuing national goals and interests, and what are the hallmarks of its behavioral model? What effect has the change in Russia's foreign policy had on the process of increasing regional cooperation with Iran? The Increasing Iran-Russia cooperation to the military and security levels is defined in the context of Russia's macro-foreign policy strategy against US unilateralism and the use of Iran's capacity to manage regional developments. This study shows that Iran is an effective and influential regional partner for Russia in thisThe research on Russian foreign policy in recent decades, particularly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, has always been a topic of analytical interest to scholars of foreign policy and international relations. As the legacy of the former Soviet Union, the Russian Federation still retains many of its hardware components in various forms. However, since 2000, Putin with his intellectual spectrum, backed by the factors of his power, the restoration of Russian credibility at regional and global levels, as well as the process of Eurasianism and Neo-Eurasianism was included in the foreign policy agenda. Accordingly, the questions of the research are, how has Russia behaved in its foreign policy in the post-2000 period whilst pursuing national goals and interests, and what are the hallmarks of its behavioral model? What effect has the change in Russia's foreign policy had on the process of increasing regioimportant period. The research method is library-documentary. Based on the theory of neoclassical realism as a theory for explaining foreign policy, internal intellectual and cultural factors and variables of Russian politics, as well as the most important regional and transnational variables affecting the process and behavior of Russian foreign policy has been discussed.nal cooperation with Iran? The Increasing Iran-Russia cooperation to the military and security levels is defined in the context of Russia's macro-foreign policy strategy against US unilateralism and the use of Iran's capacity to manage regional developments. This study shows that Iran is an effective and influential regional partner for Russia in this important period. The research method is library-documentary. Based on the theory of neoclassical realism as a theory for explaining foreign policy, internal intellectual and cultural factors and variables of Russian politics, as well as the most important regional and transnational variables affecting the process and behavior of Russian foreign policy has been discussed.

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran has been affected by economic sanctions imposed by Western countries especially the U.S. Since 2006 and with increasing Iranian nuclear standoff with the P5+1 group, the United Nations has frequently imposed economic and financial sanctions against Iran. As a result of these international restrictions and their management by an international organization, Iran's exports have been heavily reduced. Given the sanctions on the oil industry in Iran and the lack of a comprehensive model of export performance of Iranian petroleum products in the sanctions period, this research can help improve and develop this industry in international markets. The research method is phenomenological and the statistical population includes export and marketing managers and oil industry experts. Non-probable sampling and snowball sampling methods were used in this research. In this qualitative study, semistructured in-depth interviews were used to gather information, and 7 in-depth interviews on saturation law were conducted. Structural, internal, interpretive, and descriptive validity were used for validation. For surveying reliability, revision while coding and surveying by another informed person were used to ensure correct coding. This research uses a qualitative study to determine the effect of returning sanctions on the export performance model of Iranian petroleum products. After open, pivotal, and selective coding and the use of Atlas quality software, the background of Iran's oil products export performance in sanctions is market orientation, company resources, marketing mix, macro environment, and items of Iranian oil products export performance in sanction includes: financial performance,customer satisfaction and customer retention in sanction situation. Most of the previous studies have focused onpositivism and quantitative research methodology while we used the qualitative and mixed-method in this research. 

Iran and Afghanistan share deep historical, cultural and civilizational ties. Iran is one of Afghanistan’s largest trading partners. However, economic sanctions have disrupted bilateral trade between these two neighboring countries through various channels. This paper presents an empirical analysis of the impact of economic sanctions on trade between Iran and Afghanistan in the period 2004-2018 by applying the Gravity Model, while the estimation is performed using fully modified least-squares technique. Findings of the research indicate that the imposition of any strong economic sanctions, in the long run, not only during the sanctions period but also in the post-sanctions period, has increased trade between Iran and Afghanistan. On the other hand, weak sanctions during the sanctions period have reduced trade; nevertheless, weak sanctions in the post-sanctions period have increased bilateral trade. Development of trade cooperation between the two countries, facilitation of trade affairs and expansion of joint regional and international cooperation should be on the agenda of economic policymakers in Iran and Afghanistan.

Sanctions increase managers' motivations to manage profits and the accumulation of bad news due to their negative impact on corporate profitability and cash flow. According to Jin and Myers (2006), this issue increases companies' stock price crash risk. The higher probability of stock price crashes indicates a stock price overvaluation. As a result, the expected return on such shares will be low. The current paper used the softmax model to calculate the probability of stock price crashes and the expected return calculated by the Fama-French three-factor model. The sample used in this paper includes 80 import- and export-oriented exchange companies from 2008-2021. The results of this paper indicate a positive and significant relationship between the sanctions variables and the probability of stock crashes. So, sanctions cause an increase in the accumulation of bad news and information asymmetry between managers and investors. The second part of the paper's results indicates a negative relationship between the probability of stock crashes and the expected return on the stocks in the Iranian capital market. Therefore, investors have relatively good analytical skills in the Iranian capital market due to its shallow depth and infrastructure problems. The results of this paper can be used in portfolio management to select stocks with a lower probability of crash and higher return.