This chapter examines how Russian opposition leaders and organizations leveraged diplomatic capabilities to challenge their home state’s official narratives through the campaign to rename the street in front of the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C. after Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition leader assassinated in Russia in 2015. This chapter argues that the renaming of the street illustrates how dissenting non-state actors can disrupt state diplomacy while engaging in an alternative form of public diplomacy. By bridging the scholarship on transnational advocacy with Kelley’s framework on non-state diplomatic capabilities—disruption, agenda-setting, gatekeeping, and mobilizing—the chapter highlights the overlapping realms of transnational activism and public diplomacy. Additionally, it explores the unplanned but pivotal role of the D.C. City Council, which navigated the turbulence of U.S. domestic politics under the Trump administration to support the renaming effort. This case study underscores the polycentric nature of public diplomacy, where state, non-state, and sub-state actors interact, contest, and collaborate, challenging traditional diplomatic practices and advancing alternative political narratives.