Merkel to miss political forum in Yaroslavl

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will not attend the World Political Forum in the central Russian city of Yaroslavl to be held September 7-8 because of the political crisis in Germany, Valery Fadeev, the director of the Institute for Public Projects, said on Friday Earlier it was stated that the forum would be attended by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Abdullah Gul. "In fact there is a political crisis in Germany and it is related to the issues that we are going to discuss - issues of inequality," Fadeev said. According to him, there are tough debates in Germany about how and in what form the country should provide help to EU countries that are in difficult economic situations. "The European Union is actually cracking - if not at the seams, then just cracking," Fadeev said. This year's forum topic is the issue of multiculturalism, as well as the stratification of the rich and poor in the world.