Sweden’s national security adviser resigns hours after appointment over sensitive image

Sweden has suffered another blow to its national security leadership after its newly appointed national security adviser, Tobias Thyberg, resigned within hours of assuming office due to the emergence of a compromising image linked to a dating app.

Thyberg, a seasoned diplomat and former Swedish ambassador to Ukraine, was named the country’s second-ever national security adviser on May 8, Caliber.Az reports citing foreign media.

However, by the evening, he had stepped down following inquiries from Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter about a “sensitive image” from an old account he had on the dating app Grindr. Experts have warned that such images, if accessible, could pose a blackmail risk.

“I should have informed [the government] about this but I did not,” Thyberg told Dagens Nyheter.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson acknowledged the seriousness of the situation, describing it as a “system failure” that such potentially compromising material had not been disclosed during the vetting process. “It is very serious,” Kristersson stated.

Johan Stuart, a state secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office, emphasized that the image had been “unknown” to the government and that it was “obviously serious.” He confirmed that a new recruitment process for the position would begin immediately.

Thyberg’s abrupt departure follows the resignation of his predecessor, Henrik Landerholm, earlier this year. Landerholm stepped down after he was charged with negligence for leaving classified documents in an unlocked hotel safe. Swedish media also reported additional lapses, including leaving a mobile phone at the Hungarian embassy and a notebook at a radio station—claims he denies.

The back-to-back resignations have cast doubt on the Prime Minister’s judgment, particularly as Landerholm was a childhood friend of Kristersson. The national security adviser role was established to strengthen Sweden’s strategic profile in the wake of growing geopolitical tensions and years of military underfunding.

Diplomatic sources in the Nordic and Baltic regions have pointed to Finland and Norway—specifically Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre—as taking the lead in regional diplomacy, including efforts to foster peace in Ukraine. The duo coordinated joint calls on May 8 with US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) summit in Oslo, where Thyberg had been scheduled to attend.

Despite the recent setbacks, Kristersson has pledged to bolster Sweden’s defence, announcing in March plans to increase military spending from 2.4 per cent to 3.5 per cent of GDP by 2030.

By Vafa Guliyeva