Troops from the Moscow led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) were sent to Kazakhstan overnight as violence spread since late on January 4 following protests sparked in part by a strike in fuel prices.  According to officials on January 6, police killed "dozens" of protesters and detained around 2,000 people over the past day in violent clashes that prompted President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev to ask the CSTO, a military alliance comprised of several former Soviet republics in the region along with Russia, to enter the country to help "stabalize" the situation.  State television said that 12 police officers died overnight in clashes with the protesters in Almaty, and 353 more were injured.      The situation on the ground on January 6 was unclear as government blocked the Internet and hampered other telecommunicaation methods, but Reuters correspondents reported several armored personnel carriers and scores of troops had entered the main square of Almaty, and gunshots could be heard as troops approached the crowd.  Toqaev has blamed foreign trained "terrorist" gangs but he also offered no evidence of an international link to the disorder in the post-Soviet Central Asian republic.  The situation  in the oil rich country has sparked international concerns, with governments from Washington, Moscow, the United Kingdom and others calling for restraint on all sides.    The wave of protests erupted in the western region of Mangystau four days ago over a sudden hike in the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), a popular fuel used in vehicles in the tightly controlled, oil rich country.  But they have spread to cities and towns across Kazakhstan and broadened to include political grievances.             The speed at which the Russian troops arrived on the scene in Kazakhstan was seen by some analysts as another sign of the Kremlin's strategy to act quickly to safeguard its sphere of influence in the ex-Soviet Union.  It also continues to support separatists in a war in eastern Ukraine and has recently massed tens of thousands of troops near the border with Ukraine, raising fears of a possible invasion.