I was thinking of rolling the natgas and german problem together, such that red storm rising 2015 (as opposed to 1985) would look a lot like they threaten to cut off natgas exports to europe (knowing the upcoming war is going to temporarily cut off exports anyway) then things escalate until it appears some (fill in the blank nationality) blows up a .ru pipeline outta spite therefore its time to retaliate against Germany.

Probably the biggest plot hole would be since the book was written both sides learned from Afghanistan (and the US from Iraq) that simply rolling tanks in works WRT militarily controlling the territory the tanks sit on, but not at controlling the rest of the territory or the economy or pretty much anything else. In the very long run, a tank is pretty good at controlling the sand shaded underneath it, not much beyond.

You'd need a new strategy for controlling the oil. Probably indirect WRT govt coup / support in the M.E. Maybe use conventional WWIII in europe to lure as many US forces as possible out of the middle east then coup time and install puppets in charge of Saudi Arabia and Iraq and maybe some others.

If I were playing a cardboard or silicon wargame as the USSR in a RSR scenario, that's pretty much how I'd play it. I think I'd have reasonably good chance as long as it stays conventional. In the long run I'd worry about natgas exports in the future, the west is not going to be amused at buying gas from their recent enemies, so how are you going to fix your massive trade imbalance? Maybe sell the excess natgas to China for A.N. fertilizer production, they always want more food... Yeah, I could win it, I think. The USA/NATO player would be fighting a logistics war to keep the M.E. and .eu under control at the same time. Leading to unrestrained submarine warfare by .ru? Crazier things have happened.