MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Justice Ministry on Wednesday formally labelled opposition leader Alexei Navalny's anti-corruption group a "foreign agent", the RIA news agency reported.

Russian authorities can designate groups it says receive funding from abroad as foreign agents - a term that carries a negative Soviet-era connotation - under a 2012 law that was heavily criticised by Western governments.

Civil society groups designed as foreign agents have to apply for inclusion in a government register, submit regular reports on their sources of funding, on their objectives, on how they spend their money, and who their managers are.

(Reporting by Maria Kiselyova; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Andrew Heavens)