Wikileaks are not journalists and they do not follow e.g. journalistic ethics. They've done unprofessional things like posting anti-semitic statements[1] and bizarre things like doxing most of the women in Turkey[2] or posting sensitive information about people who've been victims of rape, suffer from mental illnesses, or are gay in countries where that's a big risk. That's all politically neutral and completely outside of what real journalists would sanction.
They may not be officially part of the Russian intelligence apparatus but they definitely don't seem to act contrary to Russian interests, they actively ignored leaks about the Russian government[4], and their public tweets about the Panama Papers were a lot more consistent with protecting Russian interests rather than the purported belief in exposing secrets[5]. They also didn't ask whether they were being used by sources like Guccifer 2 which was later revealed to be a Russian front.
Other governments have come to the same conclusion – e.g. here's a German report which alleges British and French agreement:
They may not be officially part of the Russian intelligence apparatus but they definitely don't seem to act contrary to Russian interests, they actively ignored leaks about the Russian government[4], and their public tweets about the Panama Papers were a lot more consistent with protecting Russian interests rather than the purported belief in exposing secrets[5]. They also didn't ask whether they were being used by sources like Guccifer 2 which was later revealed to be a Russian front.
Other governments have come to the same conclusion – e.g. here's a German report which alleges British and French agreement:
http://www.focus.de/politik/ausland/merkel-vorgefuehrt-russi...
1. http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/07/25/what_wikil...
2. http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/07/why-did-wikileaks-help-do...
3. https://apnews.com/b70da83fd111496dbdf015acbb7987fb/private-...
4. http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/17/wikileaks-turned-down-le...
5. https://mobile.twitter.com/wikileaks/status/7174580643249643... and https://mobile.twitter.com/wikileaks/status/7176700566505308...