Russia to start registering some foreign media as 'foreign agents' this week: RIA

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's justice ministry will start registering some foreign media as "foreign agents" this week, the RIA news agency cited a source in the Russian upper house of parliament as saying on Monday.

Nine U.S. media outlets, including the Voice of America and Radio Liberty, are likely to enter the list of "foreign agents" to be approved by Russia's parliament, the source at the legislature's Federation Council chamber told RIA.

The Kremlin has said it fully understands why Russia's parliament plans to discuss banning representatives of U.S. media organisations in retaliation for what it calls U.S. mistreatment of Russian media.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Maria Kiselyova)