I think the author is more in a Euro-US-centric bubble rather than Eastern European. Adding the rest of Europe or the US would make no difference to the conclus

I think the author is more in a Euro-US-centric bubble rather than Eastern European. Adding the rest of Europe or the US would make no difference to the conclusion as it's unlikely any other woman would have fit the bill. Your first 2 examples are certainly not the kind of power referred to here. The reason Elena Ceausescu gets this distinction is because it is widely believed that she was the real decision maker in the dictator couple, contrary to how it worked in many other such cases of couples with absolute power. And I'd venture to say that for that time period at least Romania had a far bigger geo-political significance for Europe and the Western world than the Philippines did for the same or for Asia.