The radio service said the court ordered her to be held until December 5, rejecting her lawyer’s request for preventive measures other than incarceration.
Kurmasheva’s lawyer Edgar Matevosyan said he considered the Kazan court’s decision “too harsh” and said he intended to appeal it.
The Sovietsky district court ruled she should be kept in detention as a “preventive measure”, the Interfax news agency reported.
She faces up to five years in jail if found guilty of the charges.
03:14
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich detained in Russia on espionage charges
Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich detained in Russia on espionage charges
The state-run news website Tatar-Inform said Kurmasheva faces charges of failing to register as a “foreign agent” and was collecting information on Russian military activities. Conviction would carry a sentence of up to five years in prison.
Kurmasheva, who lives in Prague, was stopped June 2 at Kazan International Airport after travelling to Russia for a family emergency May 20, according to RFE/RL.
Airport officials confiscated her US and Russian passports and she was fined for failing to register her US passport. She was waiting for her passports to be returned when the new charge was filed on Wednesday, RFE/RL said.
Moscow slams US after Russian journalists denied visas for UN visit
Moscow slams US after Russian journalists denied visas for UN visit
RFE/RL was told by Russian authorities in 2017 to register as a foreign agent, but it has challenged Moscow’s use of foreign agent laws in the European Court of Human Rights. The organisation has been fined millions of dollars by Russia.
The term “foreign agent”, which has Cold War connotations of espionage, has been applied in Russia to organisations, journalists, rights activists and even entertainers, and brings with it close government scrutiny and a mountain of red tape.
The Committee to Protect Journalists called the charges against Kurmasheva “spurious,” saying her detention “is yet more proof that Russia is determined to stifle independent reporting.”
[This appeared to be] another case of the Russian government harassing US citizens
Kurmasheva reported on ethnic minority communities in the Tatarstan and Bashkortostan republics in Russia, including projects to preserve the Tatar language and culture, her employer said.
The US State Department said last week that the proceedings against Kurmasheva appeared to be “another case of the Russian government harassing US citizens”. The Kremlin denied that and called the comment inappropriate.
RFE/RL has called for Kurmasheva’s immediate release to allow her to be reunited with her husband and two children.
Reporting by Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters