As both Putin and Medvedev could have run for President in the 2012 general elections, there was a view from some analysts that some of Medvedev's contemporaneous actions and comments at the time were designed to separate his image from Putin's: examples noted by the BBC included his dealings in late 2010 with NATO and the United States, possibly designed to show himself as being better able to deal with Western nations, and comments in November about the need for a stronger opposition in Russian politics, to present himself as a moderniser. The BBC also noted that other analysts believed the split to be exaggerated, that Medvedev and Putin were "trying to maximise support for the authorities by appealing to different parts of society". There was belief that the court verdict on former oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky and his partner Platon Lebedev, both of whom funded opposition parties before their arrests, would indicate whether or not Putin was "still calling all the shots".