What does the U.S. anti-terror training center in Batken mean?

EurasiaNet's Deirdre Tynan reports today that the U.S. appears to be funding an "anti-terror training center" in Batken, in Kyrgyzstan's far southwest. As you would expect, this occasioned the usual geopoliticizing:

Analysts say the opening of a US-funded training center in Batken would be widely interpreted as dealing a blow to Russia’s geopolitical position in Central Asia.

"Batken is a very fragile place, and I think building such a facility there is part of US strategy and directed toward securing [the Pentagon’s] place in the region," said Bishkek-based political analyst Mars Sariev. "I think the second phase of the process, after building and equipping the facility with American equipment, will be putting in American instructors to prepare our military or Special Forces."

"This will, of course, affect the Russians. Russia doesn’t much like the prospect of strengthening US-Kyrgyz relations," Sariev continued.

Andrei Grozin, director of the Central Asia Department at the CIS Institute in Moscow, said an American-funded training center, even if it was officially handed over to Kyrgyzstan, would be viewed dimly by the Kremlin. "Having both a Russian base and anti-terror training center built by Americans [in Batken] says a lot about Kyrgyzstan’s multi-vector politics," Grozin commented.

"For Russia, it’s a geopolitical statement, it’s about putting the Russian flag in the area," Grozin added, referring to the planned construction of a CSTO base in southern Kyrgyzstan.

But, as Tynan points out, the center is going to be handed over to the Kyrgyzstan government on completion, and is only budgeted to cost $500,000. That suggests it's going to be a very modest facility, and will not even have a full-time U.S. presence in it, probably like the Five Hills Peacekeeping Center in Mongolia. If the U.S. had announced a new $500,000 anti-terror training program in Kyrgyzstan, we would have barely noticed it. But there's something about real estate that really gets everyone's blood flowing, even if it's a tiny outpost of pre-fab trailers that a determined bunch of Talibs could overrun before breakfast.

Is this new center an attempt to build U.S.-Kyrgyzstan military ties? Certainly. Will it give a handful of U.S. military personnel a little closer look at what's going on in the Ferghana Valley? Definitely. Is it going to have any meaningful effect on the balance of power in that area? Not at all.

UPDATE: So, the facility apparently will cost $5.5 million, not $500,000 as we originally reported. Still, even at 11 times the cost, that doesn't get you much when you're spending Pentagon money.