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From Факел Новороссии 2023 by Pavel Gubarev:

Дополню то, что говорит Катерина. Действительно, когда я сидел в изоляторе СБУ, ахметовцы всячески старались меня поставить себе на службу. Если помните, то и Арсена Горловского мне подогнали потом, когда речь шла о моём обмене на пять пистолетов. Но когда Катя передала мне то предложение Левченко через адвоката, я отписал ей: «Ахметов – негодяй, Левченко – шестёрка негодяя…»

Подогнать should mean "fit, adjust, accommodate", but there is the meaning "hook up with" on Multitran. This usually has a sexual meaning in English (e.g. of a man hooking up with a woman), but could "hook up with" meaning be meant there. ie. Gubarev was encouraged to get together with Gorlovsky (a Donbass bandit).

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There is a meaning "направив чье-либо движение, гоня, заставить приблизиться к кому-либо, чему-либо, куда-либо" (meaning 2 from Russian Wiktionary):

Через час мы подогнали машину к двери террасы и разгрузили багажник.

More examples from ruscorpora:

На следующий день подогнали вездеход с прицепленными санями, и мы приехали в тундру.

Директор рудника из местных, который, оказывается, не спит ночами, переживая за производство, уже нашел выход — подогнал колонну 12-тонников, взятых его кооперативом где-то в лизинг.

...итальянской на сто процентов была только мафия, подогнавшая из Туниса левый танкер с канолой

Могу делянку указать, чтоб без порубочного билета, могу сам машину брёвен подогнать.

While all these examples are about moving some transport, this usage gave rise to very informal and figurative meaning of "to provide somebody with something, to obtain something for somebody", often in some unofficial, semi-legal way. The two latter examples above might explain the rise of this meaning: while they mention transport (canola tanker and a truck of logs), still the meaning is more about "provided canola" and "provide logs", not about literal vehicles.

More examples of this meaning:

Тут я одной гранд-мадам из консульства Набокова сделала, так она мне тушенки подогнала по пять песо, брать будешь?

...she provided me with tinned meat [apparently as a reward]

Даже бутылку дорогого коньяка подогнали. Лично хозяин принес.

They gave me a bottle of expensive cognac.

Жаль, что времени нет, а то бы я тебе такую джинсу через неделю подогнал.

In a week, I could have obtained such a good jeans for you.

This does not fit your quotation well enough, but I think we need more context (and maybe understand the relation between all people mentioned). Probably somebody has "provided" Arsen to the author. I found another quote from Ruscorpora that has a very similar meaning:

Твоя работа! — заорал он. Ты мне жулика подогнал! Вот ты и отвечать будешь!

...You have sent me a cheat!

The translation "to hook up with" that you mention seems to fit quite well, according to meaning 3 from English Wiktionary: "To supply someone with goods or services; to sell drugs or contraband; to give a good deal for buying something":

Hey man, can you hook me up with some weed?

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  • Very good answer, but I have a question about “this usage gave rise to very informal and figurative meaning”. I observed that this meaning is relatively new, it was originally was created by criminalized society. It also affects the style of speech using this word in this sense. Could you clarify that? Commented Jan 5 at 16:40
  • @SergeyAKryukov, yes, the meaning is quite new, although I think I have heard it in 2000s, if not 90s — and I believed that it originates in Soviet times, when indeed many good could not be bought directly, and had to be "obtained". Regarding criminalized — I've mentioned that the word has some meaning of illicitly or semi-legally obtaining goods, and of course it is slang and informal, thus affecting the style of speech, but personally I would not say that it has any pronounced associations with criminal society. However, this is my personal feelings, I'm in no way a professional linguist Commented Jan 5 at 18:36
  • Thank you for these clarifications. From what I know, I agree with you. Commented Jan 5 at 20:05
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"Подогнать" in this context is "to give or provide something informally", so they "provided" (подогнали) him with connections to Gorlovskiy.

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