I won’t comment on the deep-state stuff as that appears to be a dog whistle for some other political argument.
What I do find interesting: a lot has changed since the 80s. The idea proposed in this article that low level employees still have access to documents is far-fetched in the modern age of email, virtual ACLs, etc. I suspect that the agent was not instructed to steal documents but rather to execute binaries on computers in the secure network.
We know from other reporting that Russian tradecraft has the agent use shortwave communication to transmit and communicate with their handler. For example, the agent would sit in a cafe and await the arrival of the handler, who would never enter the cafe but be nearby in a car. That is modern tradecraft.
We also know from the Vault 7 leaks that the CIA focused most of their implant development on binaries that would be executed by someone knowingly infecting their computer. That is another example of modern tradecraft.
It would be a stretch to say Johnson is kompramat, but there is certainly little appetite in that party to get actively hostile with Russia.
Somehow this lightweight was defence minister during Salisbury[2]
[0] https://www.wired.co.uk/article/russia-report-real-estate
[1] https://amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/21/tory-donors...
[2] https://news.sky.com/story/amp/gavin-williamson-the-man-who-...
Edit: Formatting
Between his false wikileaks claims, his questionable Snowden book, his unquestioning buy-in on the Litvenko propaganda, and his unskeptical attachment to the Steele dossier, he has lost credibility in spades among those looking for a journalist that tells hard truths.
I don't know how any purporting to be a serious journalist on the topic can even think to put this kind of an exerpt in an article. This is just normal espionage, the same way we all do it. I think the take away is just that... Harding isn't a serious journalist, and you'd be better off looking elsewhere for your analysis. (if it's even his analysis in the first place!)The Guardian sure has gone downhill since Snowden... it's such a shame.