Yesterday, I have found out that the first invocation of emerge-webrsync command can not download a snapshot of the portage tree if webrsync-gpg feature has been set in make.conf because stage3 does not have Gentoo signing keys and I can not install Gentoo package with Gentoo signing keys because there is no portage tree in stage3. (Just to remind: according to Gentoo handbook, the first invocation of emege-webrsync command is done after chrooting.)
After disabling webrsync-gpg feature in make.conf emerge-wibrsync command worked as described in Gentoo handbook. However, as a result, the downloaded portage tree has not been verified! So, Gentoo handbook contains instructions that lead to downloading and using unverified portage tree that is unacceptable, especially taking into account the security issues Gentoo already had this year! P.S. I now recall that I hit the same issue in 2013 and earlier this year as well. Than I had to download, verify and untar a snapshot of the portage tree before chrooting, what never has been described in the Gentoo handbook.
