The article: "But all that changed in 1994, after Alexander Lukashenko, a former Soviet collective farm official, came to power. The authoritarian leader made Russian an official language, alongside Belarusian, and did away with the nationalist symbols."

The truth: Lukashenko won 81% of votes in the second round of elections with voter turnout being over 70%. People were unhappy with previous reforms, including massive Belarusization.[0] The decisions to make Russian the second official language and to change the state symbols were made through referendum on which 3/4 of votes were 'yes'. [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belarusian_language#Post-1991

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Belarusian_referendum