Municipal politician Ingebrikt Sjövik is a former officer.
Due to his background in the military, he quickly recognized the crown of the t-shirt he saw in one of Destination Gotland's souvenir shops.
The t-shirt represents the Gotland landscape coat of arms and just above it is an illustration of a Russian tsar's crown.
- I do not think that Destination Gotland had any evil intent, it is certainly just a mistake.
But it is incredibly historyless, says Sjövik, who refers to the short-lived Russian occupation of Gotland in 1808.
He reacted strongly to the shirt and chose to share the photo in a Twitter post.
- Russia is trying to move borders in Europe.
Then symbolism of this kind becomes more serious.
Given the security policy situation and Russia's proposal regarding Sweden, and not least Gotland, such a "small detail" can mean a great deal in Russian propaganda, says Sjövik.
"We did not know"
According to Adam Jacobsson, sales and marketing manager at Destination Gotland, the shirts were purchased from a supplier last year.
Then no one reacted, he says.
- We did not know that it was a tsarist crown and that it had a connection to Russia.
We received this information from you, says Adam Jacobsson.
Destination Gotland will now withdraw all shirts with the motif.
Customers who bought the shirt can also return it and get their money back.
- It is clearly unfortunate and it is only to regret.
We have no ambitions whatsoever to spread any Russian message and the shirt is being removed from all boats, says Jacobsson.
But what does the motive really mean? In the clip above, the herald Stefan Bede talks about where the symbol comes from - and what it means today.