Lukashenko is a nationalist dictator, but he rose to power because he was the only deputy to the Belarussian parliament who voted against dissolving the Soviet Union, and opposed privatization and neoliberalism in the 90s. While in power, he's revived and preserved a lot of Soviet institutions, and undertaken some impressive poverty reduction initiatives.

This doesn't mean he isn't shitty in other ways, of course- he's a massive homophobe and misogynist. He's denied the deadliness of Corona and said that tractors and vodka would help cure it. He's unpopular now because he massively fucked that up.