Russian President dissolves news agency RIA Novosti

President Vladimir Putin has abolished the state-run news agency RIA Novosti in a reorganization, that agency reports:

News agency RIA Novosti and the state-owned Voice of Russia radio will be scrapped and absorbed into a new media conglomerate called Rossiya Segodnya, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin. The move is the latest in a series of shifts in Russia’s news landscape, which appear to point toward a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector.

In a separate decree published Monday, the Kremlin appointed Dmitry Kiselyov, a prominent Russian television presenter and media manager recently embroiled in a scandal over anti-gay remarks, to head Rossiya Segodnya.

RIA had, in the past, run fairly balanced reporting on LGBT issues.  Clearly, that had to be stopped.

It is important to point out that newly-named head of the Rosiya Segodnya, Kiselyov,  made remarks saying gay-bashing victims deserved their fate back in August.

Said Kiselyov, who received applause for his remarks:

"I think that just imposing fines on gays for homosexual propaganda among teenagers is not enough. They should be banned from donating blood, sperm. And their hearts, in case of the automobile accident, should be buried in the ground or burned as unsuitable for the continuation of life."