Mr. Putin’s presidential chief of staff, Sergei B. Ivanov, said the decision to close the news service was part of an effort to reduce costs and make the state news 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.” Its executive editor, Svetlana Mironyuk, the first woman to lead the agency, appeared before her stunned colleagues and apologized for failing to preserve what she called the best news organization ever built by state money, according to a video recording of the meeting.

The two agencies will be absorbed into a new state media organization known as Rossiya Sevodnya, or Russia Today. In a separate decree, Mr. Putin appointed Dmitry K. Kiselyov as executive director of the organization. Mr. Kiselyov, a television executive and host, is an avowed pro-Kremlin figure who has provoked controversy with starkly homophobic remarks and virulent commentary suggesting foreign conspiracies are threatening Russia.

The decrees caught the agencies’ employees, its executives and even some government officials by surprise. Mr. Putin made the changes without prior notice or public debate, as is often the case here. His 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.

The reasons behind the timing were unclear and, to many, puzzling. RIA Novosti is one of the official sponsors of the Winter Olympics to be held in the Russian resort of Sochi in February, and its employees have been deeply involved in organizing preparations for news coverage there. There have been some calls for boycotting the Games, citing Russian policies, including a new law prohibiting advocacy of nontraditional sexual relationships, that have prompted harsh criticism from rights organizations.

“Russia has its own independent politics and strongly defends its national interests,” Mr. Ivanov, a close ally of Mr. Putin’s, said in remarks to reporters, according to RIA Novosti. “It’s difficult to explain this to the world, but we can do this and we must do this.”