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.

Mr. 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.”

Mr. Putin’s decision appeared to catch the agencies’ employees, even their executives, by surprise. Mr. Putin made the changes by decree without prior notice or public debate, as is often the case here. The decree said that the new agency would focus on providing news about Russia to an international audience; the agency’s directors will be directly appointed by the president’s office.