Russian President Vladimir Putin is shutting down the state-owned news agency RIA Novosti and “Voice of Russia” radio station, and replacing them with a new agency to be headed by a notorious news anchor known for spouting extreme anti-western and homophobic opinions.

Critics fear the surprise move will crush media freedom even further than it has suffered under Putin’s increasingly authoritarian rule.  The renamed agency will be called “Russia Today”, the original name of the state-run Russian cable TV network that’s only available in a few hotels and on satellite in Oz, but is marketed extensively in Europe and North America.

The new boss is Dmitry Kiselev, known for spewing conspiracy theories and untruths such as accusing the West of conspiring with Hitler (in fact, he regularly brands all enemies of Putin as Nazis in one way or another), and for forbidding  gays from donating blood or organs and instead incinerating their hearts. 

Until now, RIA Novosti had been the last state-owned media outlet to reflect a diversity of opinion in some of its output. But pro-Kremlin commentator Sergey Markov wrote on Facebook that the agency's demise may be linked to its coverage of anti-Putin protests in 2012 and the apparent sympathy of some of its journalists for the opposition.