A Russian court on Monday ordered Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva detained until December 5, after prosecutors said she had failed to register as a “foreign agent”, Russian news agencies reported.
Kurmasheva, who works for the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) media outlet, was detained by Russian law enforcement in the central city of Kazan on Wednesday.
The Sovietsky district court in Kazan — the main city of the Tatarstan republic — ruled she should be kept in detention as a “preventative measure”, the Interfax news agency reported.
She faces up to five years in jail if found guilty of the charges.
Kurmasheva is the second US journalist to be arrested in Russia this year.
Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich was detained in March on espionage charges — decried as false by his lawyers, the WSJ and the White House.
US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said last week that Kurmasheva’s arrest “appears to be another case of the Russian government harassing US citizens”.
The Kremlin on Friday denied it was “persecuting” US citizens.
“There is no campaign in Russia to persecute US citizens. There are US citizens who break the law, and appropriate measures are taken against them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Kurmasheva, editor of the US outlet’s Tatar-Bashkir service, lives in Prague with her husband and two children, RFE/RL said.
