Appointment to run the Russian Chamber of Commerce in Portugal was in a way a token of appreciation and gratitude for all what Vam did for the USSR Chamber of Commerce prior to that (after all Portugal is a nice place to stay for a while). But Vam also felt there was a hidden motive for his stationing in there and that was to use his pioneering drive and creative ability for breathing new life into the stagnated project.

The Russian Chamber in Portugal emerged on the wave of political changes and the "Revolution of Carnations" with its swing to the leftist regime. At the time Vam took over bilateral trade was limited to traditional export commodities such as oil in one direction and cork, textiles, footwear and wines in return.  For some good reasons all trade was mainly channeled via a handful of  "trusted" companies.  So the idea was to use the Chamber to diversify business partnerships and bilateral trade opportunities, and as usual Vam gladly took the challenge and went into action.

Those were the times of Perestroika in Russia, the state monopoly of foreign trade was scrapped and, after pondering over the prospects of Luso - Soviet trade, Vam decided that creating direct interaction opportunities between potential partners was his best bet, and so he concentrated on new cooperation accords, trade shows and the exchange of business missions. 

Vam organized numerous exhibitions in Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto, and pioneered relations with Investimentos e Participacoes de Estado (IPE), a powerful state owned industrial holding.  He took their high level delegation to Moscow, and then did all the ground work for a cooperation agreement with the Associacao Industrial Portuguesa (AIP), and finally he organized President Mario Soares' visit to the Moscow WTC to mark a new phase in business relations between the two countries.

But Vam never rested on laurels. Transition of Portugal to the European Common Market added new prospects of expanding bilateral trade with Russia and Vam was full of many ambitious plans when a new challenge appeared on the horizon giving Vam's ambitions a new life and diverting them half the world away to the Orient ...