The extradition was not issued until after the WikiLeaks. Assange has always claimed he was given the leaks from manning. This is why the UK courts have an appeal against extradition order. It tells you this in the Wiki page on Assange. Assange is an arsehole, he has a history of hacking in the 90's. This doesn't mean he should be hounded by the richest in the world because they did not like what he said about them.

I have to ask. He’s never released info on me. Am I his handler?

Occam’s razor says you’re wrong. If we take the idea that Assange is a radical journalist who would publish any juicy evidence of state wrongdoing, regardless of source or target, then it doesn’t take much more thought as to why foreign states would leak military intelligence through Assange to reduce popular support for the activities of the defence apparatus of a rival power. It’s one additional step to add “and also he is directly controlled by the foreign state”. Why would they need to control him if he does what they want without them having to go to any special effort?

And the west wouldn’t have much motivation to leak their Intel to wiki leaks, because wiki leaks is a western institution - they can just use their normal propaganda outlets in their own nations - and the population of foreign nations would be better targeted by some source in the target nation.

This is just conspiratorial stuff. You need some better evidence - for example, that Julian Assange had good actionable Intel on a country but refused to disclose it without a good reason - to prove that he is acting for the express benefit of a particular state actor.