The new national security adviser in Sweden resigned just a few hours after being appointed, after the discovery of old “sensitive nature” photos from a meeting application, the government said on Friday. Prime Minister ULF KrisSSON recognized “a systemic failure” in government security authorization procedures.
Tobias Thyberg, a 49 -year -old diplomat who was notably Sweden Ambassador to Ukraine and Afghanistan, was appointed national security advisor on Thursday. He left his post less than twelve hours later, after the newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) confronted him with “sensitive” photos of his past. “These are old photos of an account that I had on Grindr (Editor’s note: the gay dating application). I should have informed the government, but I did not do it, “he told” DN “. “So I announced that I did not intend to hold the post of national security advisor.”
According to the tabloid “Expressn”, the photos are of “sexual nature”.
-Friday, Prime Minister KrisSson described the “serious” affair. He recognized the existence of failures in security authorization procedures, Tobias Thyberg having held numerous positions involving classified information. “The fact that this information has not been revealed is a systemic failure,” said Ulf KristerSson.
An intelligence expert from the Swedish Defense University told “DN” that the photos were probably already in the hands of foreign powers, which could potentially use them as blackmail. “I would not be surprised that the intelligence services of other countries already have this information,” said Johan Holmlund, quoting the United States, Russia and China.
The case is particularly embarrassing for Ulf KrisSson, due to the scandal that surrounded the predecessor of Tobias Thyberg. Henrik Landerholm resigned in January: he forgot classified documents in the conference center of a hotel in March 2023. He is targeted by an investigation for “negligence with secret information”. Henrik Landerholm – whose appointment two years ago, had aroused a debate because of his friendship with Ulf KrisSson – left the documents in an unmanned locker and the woman who found them, originally from Georgia, “can be linked to circles of violent extremism”, according to the accusation and the investigation of the police.
