Bashevi'it - Milhamot: Putin's Gog-like Move

Gemara Sanhedrin 97a (Daf | Text) /Megilla 17b (Daf | Text):

בשביעית מלחמות...In the seventh year [of the Shemita cycle], wars.

It seems as if one of those wars has just begun.

In Megilla, it adds that the wars are the אתחלתא דגאולה - the beginning of the Redemption process.

Bereishit 10:2:

ב  בְּנֵי יֶפֶת--גֹּמֶר וּמָגוֹג, וּמָדַי וְיָוָן וְתֻבָל; וּמֶשֶׁךְ, וְתִירָס.

2 The sons of Japheth: Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.

Yehezkel 39:1:

א  וְאַתָּה בֶן-אָדָם, הִנָּבֵא עַל-גּוֹג, וְאָמַרְתָּ, כֹּה אָמַר אֲדֹנָי יְהוִה:  הִנְנִי אֵלֶיךָ, גּוֹג--נְשִׂיא, רֹאשׁ מֶשֶׁךְ וְתֻבָל.

1 And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say: Thus saith the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal;

There are many reasons to believe that Russia is Magog and that Gog is connected to Russia.  Here are some:

• Josephus says that the Greeks called the Magogites the Scythians. 
• Josephus also says that Tiras is "Rusi".  (Tiras from 1 verse may be the same as Rosh from the other verse.)
• A version of either R' Hasdai ibn Shaprut's letter to the King of the Khazars (acc. to this source) or the king's letter back (acc. to this source) mentions נשיא ראש משך ותובל in reference to either Russia or the Kiev area specifically (although I couldn't find it in either letter - maybe I was looking at the wrong version).
• The Yerushalmi says that משך is "מיסיא", which the Penei Moshe explains is referring to Moscow.  
• Rav Moshe David Valli (a student of the Ramha"l) says that his heart tells him that Gog is the "Caesar of Moscow".
• Various traditions passed down from the Vilna Gaon that when the Russians capture Kerch in Crimea and/or when the Russian ships pass through the Bosporus Strait and reach Istanbul, we should start putting on our Shabbat clothes to greet Mashiah.  (See here, here, and here.)

(Some of the above sources came from this cached page.)

Many sources have also mentioned that the word "ראש" in Yehezkel refers to Russia.  This is due to the fact that the word נשיא is spelled with a שוא and not a קמץ.  In addition, the Ta'amim indicate that the word Rosh is not connected to Meshech and Tuval (which would indicate that it means "the head of"), but stands on its own, indicating a different nationality.

Above, I mentioned the opinion that Tiras is Russia.  Rashi famously identifies Tiras with Paras.  There is definitely a connection between the 2, as the Gr"a had said, that Russia had inherited the Kelipa of "Dubiel" from Paras.  Whether the "Paras" mentioned in Yoma 10a and Avoda Zara 2b are referring to Iran or Russia (or both) is anyone's guess.

Finally, I'll mention another book called Heshbonot Hage'ula by Chaim Shvili, written in 1964, where he predicts that Gog Umagog will be between England and Russia (along with some other fascinating tidbits).

At least 2 great rabbis that I am aware of - Baba Baruch Shlit"a and Rav Elya Ber Wachtfogel Shlit"a - already mentioned that the Russian/Ukrainian conflict shows that these are Geula times.

May Hashem allow it to be true.