“The accusations are demonstrably false, and we continue to demand his immediate release,” it said.
A handful of journalists were allowed into the courthouse but not the courtroom itself. Mr. Gershkovich was hidden from view on entering and exiting, before being driven back to Lefortovo jail in a white van with blackened windows.
American diplomats had said it was almost certain that Mr. Gershkovich’s detention would be extended at the hearing and his application for bail denied. Even at the best of times, a pretrial investigation of an espionage case normally takes months, and a year may elapse before a verdict is reached.
Russian-American relations are in a state of acute tension over the war in Ukraine, a conflict that is still officially referred to in Russia as a “special military operation,” and President Vladimir V. Putin has embarked on a drive to suppress independent news outlets and free speech in general.
In Russia, the word “war” has come to be used increasingly, but not to describe the invasion of Ukraine ordered by Mr. Putin early last year. Rather, it is used to characterize a broad confrontation with the West — the United States, NATO and the European Union — from which there is, in the prevailing Russian view, no turning back.
“Russia has entered a phase of the most acute confrontation with the collective West,” Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, said last week.
Dmitri. A. Medvedev, the former Russian president who has become increasingly outspoken in his nationalist outbursts, said on Tuesday that “the more destructive are the weapons supplied to Kyiv, the more likely the scenario of a nuclear apocalypse.”
Before the arrest of Mr. Gershkovich, Russia had not charged a Western journalist with espionage since the Cold War. At a hearing in a Moscow courtroom on April 18, journalists were allowed to enter and saw Mr. Gershkovich standing in a glass cage, red handcuff marks visible on his wrist. He flashed a smile and, through his lawyer, declared his determination to defend his right to work freely as an accredited journalist.