With No Notice, Putin Scraps Kremlin News Agencies

President Vladimir V. Putin dissolved one of Russia’s official news agencies, RIA Novosti, along with its international radio broadcaster, signaling a significant reorganization in state media at a time when Russia’s international reputation has faced criticism over political and human rights and Russian influence in neighboring countries like Ukraine.

The two agencies will be absorbed into a new state organization known as Rossiya Sevodnya, or Russia Today, to be led by a television executive and host, Dmitry K. Kiselyov, who has provoked controversy with starkly homophobic remarks and virulent commentary about foreign conspiracies against Russia. Putin’s presidential chief of staff, Sergei B. Ivanov, said the decision was part of an effort to reduce costs and make the country’s state media more efficient, but RIA Novosti’s report on its own demise said the changes “appear to point toward a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector.”