Tobias Timberg, the newly appointed national security adviser for Sweden, has resigned just a day after taking office. His departure follows criticism from the prime minister regarding undisclosed information about photos he shared on a dating site years ago.
A seasoned diplomat, Tiberg previously served as ambassador to Ukraine and Afghanistan. The government stated that he did not reveal this information during the background checks required for the position.
This resignation comes just months after his predecessor stepped down amid accusations of mishandling confidential information.
While Tiberg has not responded to requests for comment from Reuters, he acknowledged in a statement to Dagens Nyheter that he should have disclosed the existence of the photos.
“These are old photos from an account I had on the dating site Grindr. I should have alerted them about this, but I failed to do so,” he explained to DN.
Reuters has not been able to independently verify the content of the photos. Candidates for sensitive government roles are typically required to disclose any potentially compromising information that could lead to blackmail.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson remarked that this information should have been disclosed long ago, calling it “a systemic failure for such information to not have been revealed.” He made these comments to reporters at a meeting in Norway.
Tiberg was scheduled to accompany the Swedish prime minister to Oslo for a summit with Northern European leaders, but his participation has since been cancelled.
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