KGB thought James Bond's weapons were real

The KGB thought James Bond's weapons were real and tried to keep pace by working on new gadgets like a lipstick gun, according to a US museum.

The KGB thought James Bond's weapons were real and tried to keep pace by working on new gadgets like a lipstick gun, according to a US museum.

The International Spy Museum, which opens in Washington in February 2002,

also reveals that the director of the CIA in the 1960s often watched Mission Impossible.

After each episode, the director would call those in charge of spying gadgets and tactics and ask: "Can we do that?"

The museum will cost $29 million and showcase thousands of years of espionage.

Malrite will run the museum. Its founder Milton Maltz came up with the idea for the spy museum.

Mr Maltz said many ideas for the museum came from an advisory board of historians and former spies with the FBI, CIA and KGB. A couple of years ago, the ex-spies gathered to swap stories, Mr Maltz said.

"Sometimes they would say, 'Is it still classified?' One side would tell their story and the other side's story would be different. It was fabulous because it was spy versus spy," he said.

Malrite has been collecting artifacts for the museum by buying items on the internet and asking former agents for souvenirs from their careers. The new museum's prized possession is an Enigma machine used by the Nazis to encrypt top-secret messages.

Among the other attractions will be a "spy school," where visitors can learn how to bug a room, try on disguises and use spy cameras.

While the museum will address the careers of real-life spies such as Mata Hari, there will also be a nod to Bond and his colleagues from the world of fiction.

That's because the real world influenced the entertainment industry and vice versa.

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