Asbest is a town located in the Sverdlovsk Oblast of Russia. It is situated on the eastern slopes of the Ural Mountains along the Bolshoy Reft River, approximately 70 kilometers northeast of Yekaterinburg.
The town was previously known as Kudelka (Sliver). According to census data, its population was recorded at 68,893 in 2010, following a decline from 84,470 during the 1989 Soviet census.