MOSCOW, January 10. /TASS/. Bloggers receiving funds from foreign governments may be recognized as foreign agent media outlets, Russian Deputy Speaker of the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, Pyotr Tolstoy said.

"These are individuals who act as mass media, including bloggers, if there is evidence of funding from abroad and signs equating them to foreign agent media outlets," Tolstoy said.

This refers to bloggers bankrolled by foreign governments through a foundation based in the United States and who receive funds to disseminate information from their sources, he said. "So, they receive money from a foreign state, not from a private person."

Yevgeny Revenko, a member of the State Duma Committee for Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications, said recognizing individuals as foreign agent media outlets is a tit-for-tat response to the legislation in the United States.