Former Likud and Kadima Knesset Member Marina Solodkin died Saturday night from an apparent stroke, while attending a conference in Riga, Latvia. She was 60 years old. Solodkin, who was a guest of a Riga conference on the prevention of fascism, reportedly felt ill after giving her address at the conference. She went up to her hotel room to rest, where she apparently suffered a fatal stroke. Riga authorities contacted the Foreign Ministry, which informed the family of her death. The ministry is assisting the family in making the necessary arrangements to transport Solodkin's body back to Israel. Solodkin was born in Moscow on May 31, 1952. She studied at Moscow State University, where she earned a doctorate in economic and social history. She immigrated to Israel in the early 1990s and joined the Russian-immigrant party Yisrael Be'aliyah, under the leadership of Natan Sharansky. She was first elected to the Knesset in 1996. She was re-elected to the Knesset in 1999, after Yisrael Be'aliyah merged with the Likud, and was appointed deputy minister of immigrant absorption. In 2006 Solodkin resigned from the Knesset in order to join Kadima and was voted tenth on the party's list in the 2009 elections. In December 2012, ahead of the 2013 elections and after 16 years as a Knesset member, Solodkin announced that she would not be seeking re-election. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on Saturday offering the family his condolences. He described Solodkin as "a dedicated public representative who, in her quiet and modest way, was always attuned to the problems of Israels citizens and especially the immigrants." "She possessed great humanity and concern. I liked and appreciated her very much and she will be missed," Netanyahu said. Sharansky, now the head of the Jewish Agency, said: "I am shocked by Marina's sudden and tragic death. Immigrants from the Soviet Union never had as eager or as uncompromising an advocate and defender as her." Solodkin is survived by her husband and two children.