Dimitri Belikov

On the show, Dimitri Belikov is introduced as Lissa Dragomir's guardian and trains the novices at St. Vladimir's. The student who tests him most is Rose. He calls her Roza, demands discipline and praises her when she respects the chain of command. In training, he goes easy on no one. To Dimitri, a guardian exists to protect the Moroi, and any distraction can cost a life.

When Christian Ozera goes off alone to meet his mother, who has turned Strigoi, Dimitri is the one who sets him straight. He warns that it put lives at risk and tells Christian his parents aren't his parents anymore.

After the guardian Mikhail is turned Strigoi, Rose tells his sister Sasha to run. Dimitri finds out and covers for her, knowing the risk. On the royal tour in episode 6, he's the one who gives Rose her molnija mark, and they kiss.

The romance stays hidden, a string of stolen moments. Dimitri ends it: he won't come between Rose and her duty, or be the reason she slips when a Moroi's life is on the line.

During the Trials, Dimitri and Rose end up facing each other. Soon after, he's arrested for treason for covering for another guardian. Before he's taken, he asks Mason Ashford not to tell Rose what's about to happen to him.

When the Strigoi break the Dominion's wards and everyone fights to restore them, the court's future changes hands. At the end of the season, Dimitri and Rose share a tense goodbye before she flees with Lissa into the human world.

In the film, Danila Kozlovsky plays Dimitri. He becomes Rose's mentor when she returns to St. Vladimir's and helps rescue Lissa when Victor Dashkov kidnaps her. Dimitri kills Victor's daughter Natalie, who had turned Strigoi, and arrests her father.

When Rose asks how he feels, Dimitri says he can't love her. If she and Lissa were in danger at the same time, he'd have to save Lissa, and he doesn't want to live with that choice. It's the same dilemma that closes Richelle Mead's first book.

In Richelle Mead's books, Dimitri was born in Baia, Russia, and grew up in a dhampir commune with his mother and grandmother. He's the one who brings Rose and Lissa back to school in the first book. Danila Kozlovsky played him in the 2014 film; Kieron Moore, in the 2022 series.