This is the one field in the registry where a flag is a starting point and nothing more. Sanctions do not work at the level of countries. They work at the level of named people, named entities, specific sectors and specific transactions — and the same country can be entirely open for one activity and closed for another.
It means that sanctions regimes maintained by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom or the UN Security Council reach this jurisdiction, and that the registry records that at country level only. It does not tell you which programme applies, to whom, from what date, or with what carve-outs. A flag here is a reason to open the lists; it is never a substitute for opening them.
Read this as «2 of the 90 jurisdictions tracked here carry a country-level flag», never as «2 jurisdictions in the world are sanctioned». Sanctions programmes touch many more countries than are flagged here, sectoral and person-level designations exist independently of any country flag, and an unflagged jurisdiction in this registry may still host a designated person or a restricted sector. The absence of a flag is not a clearance.
Before anything else, screen the specific parties — your counterparty, its owners, its bank, and the goods or services involved — against the applicable lists, and do it under the law that actually binds you: the regime that matters is the one of your own jurisdiction, your currency of settlement and your bank, not the one of the country in the table. This is not a question of cost, it is a question of whether the transaction is permitted at all, and an error is not measured in money. This is also the point on the site where the boundary is sharpest: the registry describes, and a determination in your case is legal work.