While the biggest threat to Georgia's sovereignty is Russia, a close runner-up is the corruption of its political elites.
Very true, and sounds familiar to Ukraine.
Russia can afford to be as corrupt as Georgia because it has more extractable resources from the ground than the US, Brazil and Saudi Arabia combined.
Again, true, and likely the best way to motivate Russia in the right direction is for the West to produce much more oil and gas and compete with Russia rather than threaten more cronyism.
I have no evidence at all in this regard, but I suspect all of the money went into defense boondoggles like the one where they built their own APC's. It is possible to shoehorn a vast amount of kickbacks (including non-existent billed hours for phantom employees plowed into R&D) into a domestic project. Just bribe the auditor. If there is an auditor. Much harder to do so via the acquisition of foreign equipment.