Sluckaja Brama (the Sluck Gate) is designed by Jahor Novikau, an independent information specialist. It was launched on November 18, 2000. It is oriented at researchers, journalists, politicians, economists and everybody who might be interested in finding advanced information on Belarus on the Internet.

The idea of this directory was inspired by Lexis – Nexis, ProQuest, Dow Jones and other online databases which provide advanced users with large chunks of information including economic data, legislation and news.

However, creation of such a database for Belarus does not seem feasible at the moment for the following reasons. First, this is licensing and other restrictions, imposed by the Belarusian government on some kinds of information. Second, any project of this kind would not be commercially viable, let alone profitable, due to the fact that most Belarusian users can not afford a subscription to online databases.

While it is currently impossible to collect all relevant information in one database, it is possible to ease the search. Therefore, the main task of this directory is to provide users with a free starting point of search for the sources of advanced information on Belarus on the Internet.

However, it differs from other Belarusian Internet directories and portal sites. The main difference is the criteria of selection of Web pages covered by this directory. First, it does not include all relevant Websites, but only those providing access to significant amounts of relevant information or unique information. Second, it covers the Web pages which contain original reference data rather than interpretative information. Finally, it excludes badly maintained and unupdated Websites.

I would also like to attract your attention to the fact that Sluckaja Brama is totally free and independent. It ain't sponsored by nobody. All comments and annotations reflect only the views of the owner. The content of Sluckaja Brama is NOT copyrighted and can be used, reproduced, cited and duplicated without any formal limitations. I firmly stick to the view that public information (unlike private) tends to be free.

I hope this directory will help Internet users get oriented in a rather chaotic field of information on Belarus. In case you face any difficulties in finding the info on Belarus that you need, please do not hesitate to contact me. I will be happy to help you and try to answer your questions.

Jahor Novikau