Sphere question and couple smaller ones

[Meisseli]

After number of small game starts and one slightly longer game as West germany I finally did it! I started a campaign as USA and found that this game isn't so hard to understand after all. Yay, three hoorays for me!

The game has run for two years (game time, not real life) and I experienced this mass USSR-influence. Some smaller south american nations and african nations are aligned it and many nations are leaning towards it. On the other hand my allies Spain and Italy and some other minor nations are changing their sphere to more neutral stance so the Warsaw pact has a little upper hand on NATO. So what would be the best way to influence other nations? Trough trade? Should I make normal offers i.e X sum of IG for equal amount of cash, or should I just bribe them? Also while writing this post I had this idea which I haven't yet tested but there's this chance to "fund ruling party/opposition." Is that a real option or is it just a money sink I shouldn't concern? And there's no way to influence trough espionage other than assassination, am I right?

Also does the "fund insurgency" option have a real effect? Others say yes but others say no

[Meisseli]

Well, since nobody else answered I'll answer to myself. Today I continued the campaign and got some results. Poor Honduras was so broke so I gifted some money and petrol and after few offers they changed their alignment from neutral to leaning. On the other hand New Zealand changed their alingment closer to me after couple normal "IG's for equal amount cash" trade offers. Also I think that option to fund ruling party has some effect. I started to fund Italy and during that time Spain went neutral but Italy is still leaning towards me.

I still haven't found out if the "fund insurgency" option actually does something, but nevertheless I started to fund couple USSR-leaning nations. I also started to throw money on two USSR-colonies using option "support independence" Le'ts see if that does something