Maybe the real question is how long will the French continue to sit out the war - the timeline basically stopped in the early spring of 2001. While the war in Europe has pretty much petered out in Germany and Poland the war in the Middle East is still very much on - and there the French are there in force directly in contact with the Russians or at least Russian backed forces in Iraq.
So will France finally get into the war with the Soviets directly but only in the Middle East? Not so much by directly engaging the Soviets but possibly by taking on their proxy forces in Iraq? Or maybe staging an excuse so they can hit the Soviets hard and get some payback. Especially if doing so allows CENTCOM to pull out for home with a Soviet defeat and leave them as the only power remaining in the Middle East?
By the way - as to the Soviets using nukes on France by the 2000-2001 era I dont see that as very likely. The events of Boomer suggest that the Soviets may no longer have any operational nuclear missiles that can reach France - i.e. those missiles on the boomer they were trying to recover may be the only ones they have left
i.e. From the module "The potential of intact nuclear missiles and a submarine to launch them fanned the embers of vengeance in Kozlov's mind, and they soon burst into flame"
The Soviets may have done what MilGov did in the US - i.e. removed the warheads off their remaining missiles to keep them from being used against them by rebels. Thus the French by 2001 may be where they can finally hit back against the Soviets for what they did to them in 1997 and be able to do it without any risk of the Soviets being able to use their nukes on them.
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